UK to provide Saudi with military air-to-air refuelling support

Britain has agreed to provide some military support to Saudi Arabia in the face of attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis to support its own "national security", a UK defence minister said Tuesday.

A British tanker plane will provide "defensive" air-to-air refuelling for Saudi warplanes to help the country defend against Houthi strikes, the UK government confirmed late Monday.

The show of solidarity follows a Saudi request for military support after the Houthis increased drone and missile attacks on it in recent weeks alongside a lightning offensive to capture Yemen's Red Sea coast.

A Houthi attack on Riyadh on Saturday was the first to target the Saudi capital in years and a major escalation.

"We're doing it for national security reasons in support of our own national security," UK defence minister Luke Pollard told Sky News.

"In dangerous times, good friends stand together," he added, insisting the support would be in compliance with international humanitarian law.

The use of the RAF Voyager tanker, normally based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, was expected to start within days and will be time-limited, with officials indicating it could last for "weeks".

The mission, which will see the Voyager refuel British-built Typhoon warplanes used by Saudi Arabia, is in addition to the UK Sky Sabre air defence system already deployed by the country.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the new military support late Monday as he travelled to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He will meet with the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan at an event on the sidelines of the talks.

The UK leader told reporters he had agreed to the Saudi request "to secure the interests of Britain" and the wider Middle Eastern region, noting the need to keep "pathways open".

It came as G7 nations called on the Houthis to halt the strikes on Saudi Arabia, as the Tehran-backed fighters add a new threat to the Middle East war.

The attacks threaten global trade and have pushed up energy prices as Iran and its allies increase their hold over two key regional waterways, the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab strait to its west.

Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf rely on both to ship out oil and gas.

This month's lightning offensive saw the Houthis, who already held most of Yemen's populated areas, capture the country's entire Red Sea coast, giving them control over the Bab al-Mandab strait.

Saudi Arabia has, since 2015, led a coalition backing the internationally recognised government. Its intervention escalated the war, which has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in the impoverished country.

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