Turkiye FM urges UK counterpart to help reduce Red Sea tensions after strikes on Houthis

Turkiye’s Foreign Minister has urged his counterpart in the United Kingdom to help reduce tensions in the Red Sea, warning that the region risks further instability and an escalation in conflict.

On Thursday night this week, the UK and the United States launched long-anticipated military strikes on Yemen against targets belonging to the Houthi rebel movement, following a series of the militia’s attacks on ships on their way to the Red Sea over the past two months.

According to Turkish state-affiliated media outlets, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a phone call with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Friday, in which Fidan emphasised the need to reduce tensions in the Gulf of Aden on the basis that the region is already facing a myriad of challenges.

Expressing Ankara’s readiness to fulfil its obligations toward that goal, Fidan also reiterated the need for Israel’s war on Gaza to immediately end, warning that it increasingly threatens regional security and international stability by risking the spread and escalation of the conflict to the wider region, such as many fear could be the case in Yemen and potentially Lebanon.

READ: Futile and dangerous: Bombing Yemen in the name of shipping