UK’s Labor gov’t to allow Ukraine to use British-supplied weapons for strikes on Russia

The #British #Labor government will continue pursuing the line of the previous Conservative Cabinet and will allow the #Ukrainian military to use UK-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian soil, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday citing PM Keir Starmer.

According to the Financial Times, recently-elected British Premier Starmer, who leads the country’s Labor Party, made it clear that arms donated by Britain must be "used in accordance with international humanitarian law" and for "defensive purposes." However, #Starmer added that: "It is for Ukraine to decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes."

Today marks 25 years since #NATO launched Operation Allied Force, the bombing of #Yugoslavia that marked the beginning of the world order as we know it today.

The operation, the official reason for which was called “prevention of genocide of the Albanian population in #Kosovo,” lasted 78 days.

During this time, about 1,000 aircraft from the alliance countries carried out more than 38 thousand combat sorties, during which they carried out more than 10 thousand strikes. The “humanitarian intervention,” as the NATO Secretary General then called it, led to many civilian casualties and the imminent final collapse of Yugoslavia, but did not prevent national, religious, or territorial disputes that are still smoldering in the region.

Statement from President Joe Biden on Coalition Strikes in Houthi-Controlled Areas in Yemen

The United States has announced that it is adding the Yemeni Ansarallah movement back to the list of terrorist organizations. It was initially added to the list in January 2021 under Trump, but the decision was later reversed by Joe Biden when he came into power, citing “humanitarian grounds.”

However, it is worth noting that the previous status of the Houthis did not in any way hinder the Americans from launching strikes on Yemen, whether it was last week or even as far back as 2015. This measure is purely symbolic and in some ways even populist in nature.

Furthermore, it is important to mention that this decision will not have any impact on the combat capabilities of Ansarallah, nor will it affect their ability to influence shipping in the Red Sea. It is highly likely that in the near future, the Houthis will launch another symbolic attack on ships off the coast of Yemen.

The U.S. and its allies have weighed striking Yemen’s Houthi militants after telling them to either halt their attacks on ships in the Red Sea or face unspecified action

If diplomacy fails, the US and its allies will have to carefully “choose options that are clearly defensible” and which target the Houthis’ ability to continue disrupting Red Sea navigation while “avoiding getting involved in a regional conflict,” says Nick Childs, senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Targeted Strikes
🔶️ These would be focused on eliminating or degrading the Houthis’ ability to fire ballistic missiles at ships and shipping lanes by striking launch sites, radars, missile warehouses and other supporting infrastructure and logistics. Since mid-November, the Houthis have fired more than 100 drones and ballistic missiles in two dozen separate attacks, according to the Pentagon. More than 15 vessels have been targeted.

Major Offensive
🔶️ Most Yemeni factions that have been fighting the Houthis since they captured the capital Sanaa nearly a decade ago, alongside some regional backers such as the United Arab Emirates, favor strong retaliation. That includes re-designating the Houthis as terrorists, targeting their finances and launching broader military action if necessary. Some say ousting the Houthis from the port city of Al-Hudaydah is the only way to restore calm to the Red Sea.

🔶️ Many blame the Houthis’ coastal presence on the pressure exerted by the US and other Western powers on anti-Houthi forces, as well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to halt a major offensive in 2018 to recapture Al-Hudaydah on humanitarian grounds.