Did any country say that they view the British involvement in the attacks against the Houthis as supporting Israel in the Gazan conflict?

Question

The Labour MP Zarah Sultana said: “Military intervention starting out as limited can quickly escalate, risking a sequence of events far larger and more terrible, and risk even dragging us into war.”

Sunak rejected what he called the “malign narrative” that the attacks in the Red Sea were connected to the Israel-Gaza conflict. But he added that he would speak to other world leaders in the region to make sure they did not interpret the international strikes as seeking to intervene in that war.

“There will be maligned forces out there that seek to distort our action to turn it into something that it is not,” he said. “It’s important that we engage with our allies and those others in the region so they understand what we did and why.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/15/rishi-sunak-uk-willing-further-military-action-houthis

Did any country say that they view the British involvement in the attacks against the Houthis as supporting Israel's actions in the Gazan conflict? It seems that the prime minister doesn't want the international community to view the involvement as backing Israel in what Israel is doing in Gaza, did any country officially express this view, or perhaps any senior official?

Answer 1

Iran did

These military attacks are carried out in line with the continuation of the full support of the United States and the United Kingdom for the last hundred days of the Zionist regime's war crimes against the Palestinian nation and the oppressed citizens under the complete siege of the Gaza Strip.

While the Zionist regime continues its attacks and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Palestine, the United States and England are trying to divert the attention of the people of the world away from the crimes of this fake, criminal and aggressor regime against the people of Palestine by expanding their umbrella of support for the Zionist regime.

See also What are the actual demands by Yemeni "Houthis" for stopping the Bab Al-Mandab attacks?

and World reacts to US, UK attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen

Answer 2

Did any country say that they view the British involvement in the attacks against the Houthis as supporting Israel's actions in the Gazan conflict? It seems that the prime minister doesn't want the international community to view the involvement as backing Israel in what Israel is doing in Gaza, did any country officially express this view, or perhaps any senior official?

The way the question is framed suggests that there are two possible explanations for the UK and the US involvement with Houthis:

• they support Israel's actions in Gaza
• they simply try to assure the freedom of navigation

However, if looking at a bigger picture, the situation may appear more complex. In particular, right now the fighting happens at least at three fronts:

• Israel confrontation with Hamas in Gaza
• Israel confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon (which the US is quietly trying to diffuse via diplomatic engagement)
• The confrontation with Houthis near Bab-el-Mandeb

Note that all three groups are backed by Iran (Hamas and Houthis receive Iranian weapons, while Hezbollah was originally founded and trained by Iran, and actively participated in Iran-sponsored conflicts and terrorist attacks, like the civil war in Syria or Beirut barracks bombing in 1983.)

Piecing these together allows for some alternative explanations:

Containing Israel
One theory says that the US is actually trying to contain Israel. It is argued that simultaneous attacks on Israel on several fronts (from Gaza, Lebanon and against the Israel-bound ships), happening on the unprecedented scale of October 7, could be misinterpreted by Israel as an existential threat. If isolated, Israel could have resorted to extreme measures, like launching a full-scale war against Iran or resorting to nuclear weapons (if one believes that Israel does have them.)

Western confrontation with Iran
Another explanation is that Israel-Gaza war is but an episode in a larger confrontation between the US (and its western and middle-eastern allies) and Iran. In this case the Gaza war is just a pretext for disrupting the shipping in the Red Sea, with the consequences reaching far beyond Israel. Or, perhaps it is the US that has the upper hand: Iran is about to lose its foothold in Gaza and resorts to desperate measures by threatening shipping and waking up the ghost of the Oil Shocks - like the Abadan crisis or the 1973s Oil Crisis - characteristically related to the events in Israel, Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East.