{"id":61256,"date":"2026-09-22T13:09:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/iran-must-stop-arming-houthis-in-yemen-g7-says-ahead-of-un-general-assembly\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:09:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:09:01","slug":"iran-must-stop-arming-houthis-in-yemen-g7-says-ahead-of-un-general-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/iran-must-stop-arming-houthis-in-yemen-g7-says-ahead-of-un-general-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran must stop arming Houthis in Yemen, G7 says ahead of UN General Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saudi Arabia has retaliated with hundreds of air strikes in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Houthis have also launched hundreds of drones and missiles at cities and infrastructure in south-western Saudi Arabia, including the capital city, Riyadh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cqlykpe4dk0yo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">the UK will provide<\/a> &#8220;defensive air-to-air refuelling&#8221; support for Saudi Arabia, involving a single British aircraft, a Voyager, based out of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Burnham said the announcement followed a request from Saudi Arabia for &#8220;military support&#8221;, which he agreed to on the advice of Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A diplomatic source told AFP that France has pledged support as well, and says is ready to work on &#8220;securing&#8221; Saudi energy infrastructure via a &#8220;strictly defensive approach&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also requested military support from President Donald Trump, US media reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Trump has wavered for weeks over whether to act on a Saudi request for help in fighting the Houthis, the New York Times reported on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The US president had earlier told Fox News that he was in &#8220;deciding mode&#8221; as he considered options for the next steps in the war against Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On Sunday, US embassies across the Middle East issued new security alerts as fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed coalition in Yemen intensified. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Houthis declare themselves to be part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-middle-east-67614911\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">the Iranian-led &#8220;axis of resistance&#8221;<\/a> against Israel, the US and the wider West &#8211; along with armed group such as Hamas and Lebanon&#8217;s Hezbollah movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Although Iran has denied arming the Houthis in violation of a UN embargo, the UK and other Western powers have said their naval forces have repeatedly intercepted Iranian weapons shipments bound for Yemen during the civil war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A panel of UN experts also concluded in 2024 that the Houthis had been transformed into a powerful military organisation due to the transfer of materiel, assistance and training from Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah and Iraqi specialists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government&#8217;s rule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a &#8220;maritime embargo&#8221; against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Houthis said they were retaliating for a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Since taking control of Bab al-Mandab, they have said they pose no threat to international shipping but reiterated that they would continue to target vessels from Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwm2qpmepmlzo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia has retaliated with hundreds of air strikes in the region. The Houthis have also launched hundreds of drones and missiles at cities and infrastructure in south-western Saudi Arabia, including the capital city, Riyadh. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the UK will provide &#8220;defensive air-to-air refuelling&#8221; support for Saudi Arabia, involving a single [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61258,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61256\/revisions\/61258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}