Saudi Arabia will have assistance from a key Western ally in its fight against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, as Britain is providing military support to the Kingdom in a bid to help restore stability in the region and ease pressures on the global energy supply. The “purely defensive” deployment of an RAF Voyager to Saudi Arabia is intended to “ensure there’s no further escalation in the Red Sea, which could further risk our fuel prices,” he added. The international assistance comes following weeks of fighting between the Saudi-backed government of Yemen and the Houthis, which shattered a four-year informal cease-fire in the country's civil war.
The Houthi rebels have made significant advances along the Red Sea coastline as they seek to tighten their grip on the Bab el-Mandeb, a critical maritime chokepoint that links Asia and Europe via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. With global energy supplies already under strain due to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war, the strangling of another trade route could further impact global oil and fuel prices. And so, what happens in that part of the Middle East is absolutely vital for our own national security and our own economic security,” Pollard said, explaining why Britain responded to the Kingdom’s request for help.
When talking to reporters en route to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, ahead of his sit-down with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham also cited the cost of living “pressures” at home as a key reason for the support and said he was “acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region.” Burnham emphasized that it’s a “time-limited agreement in terms of the assistance that we will provide, but we will keep it under review.” The support extended to Saudi Arabia marks Burnham’s first military deployment since he became Prime Minister in July. However, it’s far from the first time the U.K. has offered assistance to Saudi Arabia, as the two nations share a close military alliance.
The Ministry of Defense on Tuesday confirmed it had agreed to “provide an RAF Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft to support Saudi defensive activity” in the region. According to the British Royal Air Force (RAF), a Voyager provides strategic air support by allowing jets and other aircraft to refuel while in flight. Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in defense studies at King's College London, says the Voyager “basically allows the Saudi Air Force to stay in the air over Yemen for longer without having to fly a single sortie and then returning to base.” “It increases the operational tempo in terms of targeting strikes and being more flexible, and more agile in responding to changing situations on the ground,” he tells TIME.
According to Pollard, the Voyager is set to operate from the British RAF base in Cyprus, which was targeted by Iran earlier this year, and will support the British-built Typhoon jets used by Saudi Arabia. Britain has historically held the role of “guarantor for maritime freedom of navigation all around the world,” says Krieg, describing the U.K.’s latest attempt to ease tensions over the Red Sea as an example of the government “stepping up to the plate.” “We're not just helping a partner in the region,” he adds. This is “the worst security situation the Saudis have been in [for] a very long time,” he notes.
Decades later, the U.K. supported the Saudi-led military coalition in its campaign against the Houthis from 2015 until the 2022 truce. According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the published value of U.K. arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia from the start of the bombing campaign in March 2015 through the April 2022 truce was £7.1 billion ($9.4 billion).
Extract — continue reading at the source.
