UK calls on Iran to 'use its influence’ with Houthis to prevent further threats in Red Sea

LONDON

Britain urged Iran on Wednesday to “use its influence” with Yemen’s Houthi group to prevent further threats to commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

The statement came following a meeting between Foreign Secretary David Cameron and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Iran must cease supplying the Houthis with weapons and intelligence and use its influence to stop Houthi attacks in the Red Sea,” Cameron also wrote on X.

“Iran must also stop using the regional situation as cover to act recklessly and violate others’ sovereignty.”

“I made this clear to FM @Amirabdolahian,” he added.

He described the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea as “illegal and unacceptable.”

The meeting between Cameron and Amir-Abdollahian took place following last week’s airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen by the US and UK.

The strikes targeted multiple Houthi sites in Yemeni cities controlled by the Iranian-backed group and followed a string of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea on Israel-bound vessels.

The Houthis announced that 73 strikes on Yemen had killed five of its fighters.

Cameron also “condemned the attacks in Erbil in Iraq, which killed UK-Iraqi dual national Karam Mikhael,” the statement said.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said earlier this week that it launched ballistic missiles at positions of "anti-Iran terrorist groups" and their backers in Syria and Iraq.

The IRGC also claimed to have destroyed a local headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad in Erbil.