A Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4 takes off to carry out air strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen, from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, January 22, 2024
BRITAIN faced condemnation today after carrying out further bombing raids with the US over Yemen.
Royal Air Force jets took part in a second wave of joint US-British action against Houthi forces on Monday night after the movement’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden continued.
Four RAF Typhoons and a pair of Voyager tankers were involved in the latest action.
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A summary of the British government’s legal position said the nation is permitted under international law to use force “in such circumstances where acting in self-defence is the only feasible means to deal with an actual or imminent armed attack.”
Stop the War Coalition national officer John Rees said that the action was the “largest raid so far on Yemen,” adding: “We were told there was no need for a vote in Parliament because [January 11] was a one-off raid. Well, this is now the second one-off raid.
“We should be under no illusion that we are not at war with Yemen. We are.
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“The violent repercussions of Israel’s war on Gaza are spreading across the Middle East and west Asia, threatening a much wider conflict. We must stop bombing Yemen.”
Former Tory Cabinet minister Alok Sharma tore apart the Government’s new oil and gas bill before it passed through the Commons, as he stressed that the UK’s promise to phase out fossil fuels will be broken.
On Monday evening, the Government’s Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill passed through its second reading in the House of Commons despite widespread condemnation from climate campaigners.
The legislation seeks to maximise North Sea oil and gas production, requiring the industry regulator to run regular rounds for new oil and gas licences, pushing fossil fuel production.
Alok Sharma, who was the Cop26 president, abstained from voting, as he spoke out in Parliament against a law which will merely “reinforce the unfortunate perception about the UK rowing back from climate action”.
“We have seen the impacts of the changing climate around us daily, 2023 was the hottest year on record globally, in recent weeks many people have faced flooding again in our country including in my own constituency, we really shouldn’t need anymore wakeup calls to put aside the distractions and act with the urgency the situation demands,” Sharma said.
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Reacting to the vote last night, Greenpeace UK’s political campaigner, Ami McCarthy, slammed the result as a win for the government, but a loss for the planet and everyone on it.
“Literally no-one benefits from this nonsensical, climate-wrecking Bill except the oil and gas industry and its shareholders,” said McCarthy.
“The government has failed to act in the national interest tonight and those MPs who chose not to rebel have placed themselves on the wrong side of history.
“‘Popular conservatism’ is an oxymoron”: Yet ANOTHER Tory faction forms
A group of Tory MPs have announced the launch of yet another new Party faction, this one called ‘Popular Conservatism’, or ‘PopCon’, with the principle aim to “restore democratic accountability to Britain and deliver popular conservative policies”.
Headed by the shortest-serving prime minister in history, Liz Truss, commentators have been quick to call out the irony in the groups name and head, with Truss previously polled as the least-popular UK prime minister in the history of polling.
Liz Truss announced the launch yesterday on X, with the new movement adding to a number of Tory break out factions that have developed in previous years, as MPs bid to push the party further to the right and influence Rishi Sunak’s manifesto ahead of a general election.
A U.S. warplane takes off from an aircraft carrier en route to airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on January 22, 2024. (Photo: U.S. Central Command)
“The U.S. just bombed Yemen again,” the peace group CodePink noted. “The U.S. is illegally attacking Yemen so Israel can continue illegally attacking Gaza.”
Anti-war voices on Monday condemned the start of what appeared to be the “sustained” assault on Yemen by U.S. and U.K. forces that top Biden administration officials have reportedly been planning—without congressional approval—in a bid to stop Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.
“The U.S. just bombed Yemen again,” the peace group CodePink lamented on social media. “The U.S. is illegally attacking Yemen so Israel can continue illegally attacking Gaza.”
The intensified attacks on Yemen—an impoverished nation reeling from a decade of civil war and U.S.-backed Saudi-led airstrikes—come amid Israel’s 108-day assault on Gaza, which has killed over 25,000 people and drawn a response from the Houthis in the form of largely ineffective missile and drone strikes.
“Today, the militaries of the United States and United Kingdom, at the direction of their respective governments with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, conducted an additional round of proportionate and necessary strikes against eight Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” a joint statement from those six nations explained.
“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners, and are in response to a series of illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi actions since our coalition strikes on January 11, including anti-ship ballistic missile and unmanned aerial system attacks that struck two U.S.-owned merchant vessels,” the statement continued.
Scenes of the latest American-British strikes on several Yemeni cities including Sana'a. pic.twitter.com/0W4Wkyjcbk
According to the six countries, Monday’s attacks “specifically targeted a Houthi underground storage site and locations associated with the Houthis’ missile and air surveillance capabilities.”
Fatik Al-Rodaini, a Yemeni journalist and human rights activist who founded the charity Mona Relief, reported on social media that “massive explosions have been heard loudly in the capital Sanaa,” while multiple videos published online showed large explosions rocking the city, raising fears of civilian casualties.
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti vowed on social media Monday that “the American-British aggression will only increase the Yemeni people’s determination to carry out their moral and humanitarian responsibilities towards the oppressed in Gaza.”
“The war today is between Yemen, which is struggling to stop the crimes of genocide, and the American-British coalition to support and protect its perpetrators,” he added. “Thus, every party or individual in this world is faced with two choices that have no thirds: either to preserve its humanity and stand with Yemen, or to lose it and stand with the American-British alliance.”
Asked last week if bombing Yemen was working, U.S. President Joe Biden—an ardent supporter of Israel’s assault on Gaza—replied: “Well, when you say ‘working,’ are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”
Some Biden administration officials have said it may take weeks or even months to stop Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked commerce. U.S. bombardment is nothing new to Yemenis, who have suffered American air and drone strikes—as well as occasional ground raids like the one in which 8-year-old Yemeni American Nawar al-Awlaki was killed—since the George W. Bush administration.
According to the U.K.-based monitor Airwars, U.S. forces have killed an estimated 154-273 Yemeni civilians in 181 declared actions since 2002.
In an article published by The Nation Monday, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) asserted that “President Biden has both the constitutional obligation and a political imperative to seek congressional authorization” for attacking Yemen.
“To be sure, the president is afforded the authority under the Constitution and the War Powers Act to repel a sudden Houthi attack on the United States, its territories, possessions, or its armed forces, in the narrow case where self-defense requires immediate action,” the congressman added. “But in the absence of such a national emergency, the president must seek authorization from Congress.”
Q: "Is it now fair to say that the US is at war in Yemen?"
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh: "We don't think that we are at war."
Q: "We've bombed them five times now…If this isn't war, what is war?"
The online activist group RootsAction weighed in on the latest U.S. war—which Biden administration officials won’t admit is one—by accusing the president of seeking to “starve the region’s poorest country.”
“Joe Biden is starting a war on Yemen with no exit plan. Just more forever wars that no one wants,” the group said. “The Democratic Party expects us to vote for this in November?”
Dithering on renewable energy and insulation will leave people in Britain ‘colder and poorer’, campaigners warn
Rishi Sunak is facing further attacks on his plans to expand oil and gas exploration in the North Sea this week. The Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill – to be debated in the Commons on Monday – has already triggered widespread protests, including the resignation of Chris Skidmore, a former Conservative energy minister.
The bill aims to boost fossil fuel extraction by establishing a new system under which licences for North Sea oil and gas projects will be awarded annually.
Green groups and analysts are lining up to criticise it. UpLift, which campaigns for green energy, pointed out that the bill, which the government says will “max out” the UK’s reserves, will actually result in only a 2% rise in North Sea gas output. “The remaining 98% of gas demand will come from existing North Sea fields,” its analysis finds.
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“Sunak, like his predecessor Liz Truss, is obsessing over oil and gas, but dithering on renewables and insulation which will boost UK energy security and lower bills,” said Tessa Khan, executive director of UpLift. “And it’s making people in this country colder and poorer.”
Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.
