{"id":778322,"date":"2026-09-22T00:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778322\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T00:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:06:17","slug":"u-k-to-offer-saudi-arabia-aerial-refueling-to-counter-houthi-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778322\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. to offer Saudi Arabia aerial refueling to counter Houthi attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABOARD THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER\u2019S PLANE \u2014 Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that Britain has agreed to provide limited military support to Saudi Arabia<\/a> to repeal attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels<\/a> in Yemen.<\/p>\n

Burnham told reporters as he flew to the United Nations General Assembly in New York that he had agreed the Royal Air Force<\/a> will provide air-to-air refueling of Saudi planes<\/a>. The agreement is for a matter of weeks, but Burnham said it will be kept under review.<\/p>\n

The conflict between the Houthis and Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government has reignited, with Houthis aiming missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, including one that targeted Riyadh on Saturday before being intercepted. The Houthis also declared a blockade on Saudi shipping<\/a> in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait<\/a> and the Red Sea, attacking Saudi-linked vessels and oil facilities inside the kingdom, the world\u2019s top oil exporter.<\/p>\n

The Houthis advanced inside Yemen earlier this month, seizing the crucial port city of Mokha<\/a> and key Red Sea islands allowing them to better monitor shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb, through which some 12% of world trade<\/a> normally passes.<\/p>\n

Burnham said he was \u201cacting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region, because of course Saudi Arabia has been experiencing attack<\/a>, is looking at potential further disruption, and we need to keep those pathways (for oil) open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain has condemned the Houthi attacks and said the U.K. will \u201cwork with partners to support regional stability, protect civilians and support humanitarian access.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.K. officials had previously declined to comment on \u201coperational matters\u201d but noted that Britain and Saudi Arabia have a close defense partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S., which bombed the Houthis<\/a> under the Biden and Trump administrations, has shown no interest in getting involved military this time around. one more sentence:<\/p>\n

U.K. officials say the agreement will start in the coming days, and involve one RAF Voyager refueling Saudi planes<\/a> on \u201cdefensive\u201d missions.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press reported last week that Saudi Arabia has asked its allies, including France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt to deploy air-defense support to the region to help defend against missiles and drones fired by Houthis<\/a> and other Iran-backed groups on the kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABOARD THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER\u2019S PLANE \u2014 Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that Britain has agreed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-778322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}