Saudi regime seeks British strikes on Yemen after US refusal, Burnham undecided

The Saudi regime has asked Britain to carry out military strikes against Yemeni forces after Washington rejected Riyadh’s appeals for direct US action, according to a Bloomberg report, as the Al Saud monarchy struggles to contain the latest advances of Yemen’s Armed Forces along the Red Sea coast.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has yet to take a final decision on the request, sources familiar with the matter told the outlet on Monday.

Riyadh is seeking operational military support to try to reverse Yemeni gains toward the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and assistance in defending oil infrastructure that has come under legitimate retaliatory fire.

Burnham has so far approved only the dispatch of British military advisers.

The appeal follows a US snub. President Donald Trump turned down urgent requests from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for American airstrikes after Yemeni forces seized the strategic port of Mokha and pushed toward the strait, opting instead for intelligence sharing while keeping US forces focused on the confrontation with Iran.

Yemeni Armed Forces have made rapid territorial gains in recent days, taking Mokha and other positions on the western coast after years of Saudi-led aggression, blockade and bombardment that devastated the country.

Sana’a has made clear that its operations target the Saudi war machine and the economic assets used to sustain it, while international shipping remains unaffected except for vessels linked to the aggressor.

Britain is no bystander. London has long armed, trained and politically covered the Saudi campaign that killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis through bombs, starvation and disease. UK-supplied aircraft, bombs and missiles were central to the coalition’s attacks on civilian infrastructure. Sending advisers now would deepen that complicity at a moment when Riyadh’s decade-long war of aggression has failed to break Yemeni resistance.

Burnham’s hesitation reflects both the unpopularity in Britain of further entanglement in Washington’s regional wars and the economic risks of a wider clash over Red Sea routes.

Officials in London have privately warned that Yemeni control of approaches to Bab al-Mandeb would expose British and Western shipping interests that the UK itself helped militarize through past support for the Saudi coalition.

Sana’a has repeatedly stated that it will continue to defend Yemeni sovereignty and respond to any new aggression.

Yemen taught US Navy ‘hard lesson,’ vows ‘siege for siege’ will continue: Ansarullah

Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement says its Armed Forces have dealt the United States a serious setback and forced Washington to reconsider its naval strategy.

The request for British strikes comes as the Saudi regime, having failed to crush Ansarullah and its allies, again looks to former colonial and imperial partners to fight its wars.

Any British decision to join or intensify attacks on Yemen would mark another chapter in London’s long record of enabling the destruction of the country rather than supporting a political settlement that ends the blockade and respects Yemeni self-determination.

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