Lord Cameron has denied RAF strikes in Yemen will escalate the war in the Middle East, as he warned the world faces a period of great peril.
The Foreign Secretary insisted it was the Houthi rebels who were running the risk of expanding the conflict by attacking container ships passing through the Red Sea.
“The escalation has been caused by the Houthis… Since November 19, you have had these 26 attacks”, Lord Cameron told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. “There have been more of them, they have been getting worse… not acting is also a policy, it is a policy that doesn’t work.”
The militant group, which backs Hamas, claims they have targeted ships with links to Israel. Their actions pose a threat to global trade by disrupting merchant vessels from passing through the sea to the Suez Canal, a route which serves 15 per cent of world shipping.
Former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove said the UK was “absolutely” right to launch strikes on the Houthis but warned it could trigger “lone wolf” attacks in the UK.
“If you’re looking at the Houthis specifically, do they have an infrastructure in the UK which could be a sort of conspiratorial organisation to mount a terrorist attack? Unlikely. Very unlikely in my view,” he said. “But lone wolf inspired events? I mean it must, to an extent, heighten that.”
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