Iran condemned yesterday Sunday the bombing of the armed forces of the United States and Britain against facilities of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, accusing Washington and London that what they want is to worsen “the tension and crises” in the region.

The Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have since November launched attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that they say are “connected” to Israel, in a show of “solidarity” with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. .

To counter their attacks, the US, Israel’s main ally, formed a multinational coalition in December to “protect” shipping in this strategically important maritime area.

And, since mid-January, US and British armed forces have launched a series of bombardments in Yemen against Houthi positions and weapons, which for their part now consider US and British ships to be “legitimate targets”.

Neither the coalition, nor the bombings against Houthi positions and weapons systems in Yemen have stopped the attacks of the Yemeni rebels, who are considered close to Iran.

Last Saturday, American and British armed forces struck Houthi positions in Yemen in response to new attacks by Yemeni rebels against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the US Department of Defense announced.

“With such attacks, America and Britain seek to raise tension and crises in the region, to spread the field of war and instability,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a press release.

“These kinds of arbitrary and aggressive military operations, apart from exacerbating insecurity and instability in the region, will bring nothing to the countries that commit them,” Mr. Kanani added.

He blamed Washington and London for failing to take “immediate and effective measures” to end Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 29,692 people, mostly women and children, in more than four months, according to the health ministry of Hamas.

The war in the enclave was sparked by an unprecedented attack on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in southern Israel, which killed more than 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

The Islamic Republic of Iran says it is its “duty” to support what it calls an “axis of resistance” to Israel and the West in the region, such as Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi paramilitary groups and the Houthi rebels.

He insists, however, that these organizations are “independent”, make decisions and act on their own.