UK offers refueling to Saudi Arabia to fight hutis

ANDon a flight to New York, where he will participate in the United Nations General Assembly, Burnham stated that he agreed that the Royal British Air Force (RAF) should refuel Saudi aircraft in flight.

The agreement has an expected duration of a few weeks, and the measure will be continuously reassessed, it has advanced.

Burnham said he was “acting to secure the interests of Britain and the region in general, because, of course, Saudi Arabia has suffered attacks and faces the possibility of further disturbances, and we need to keep these (oil) routes open.”.

UK authorities say that the agreement will begin in the coming days and involve a RAF Voyager aircraft refueling Saudi aircraft on “defensive” missions.

After years of relative calm in Yemen, the fragile truce agreed in 2022 collapsed in July, when the Hutis challenged Riyadh's control over Yemeni airspace, allowing a plane with Iranian representatives to land in Yemen.

In recent weeks, the Hutis launched a major military offensive against the troops of the internationally recognized government and supported by Riyadh, which is based in Aden.

The Hutis are part of the so-called axis of resistance, formed by political and armed groups supported by Iran, alongside Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shia militias in Iraq.

Between 2023 and 2025, they attacked commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea as a form of support for Hamas in the war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Alongside their offensive against the government troops in Yemen, the Hutis have been launching missiles and drones against Saudi Arabia's military and energy facilities for months, while imposing a blockade on all Riyadh-related vessels transiting through the Red Sea.

According to U.S. media, OPEC's largest oil producer will have asked several countries, including the United States, to intervene militarily against the Hutis, something which they will have refused to prevent further escalation in the Middle East.

The Huti offensive rekindled the war in Yemen, which began in 2014 after the capture of Sanaa and which had been frozen since the parties agreed a ceasefire mediated by the United Nations at the end of 2022, which has remained largely so far.

According to the UN, almost 130,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Yemen in recent weeks, during which Iran's insurgent allied movement has taken control of much of the Yemeni southern coast of the Red Sea, which increases pressure on Saudi Arabia, adding to the blockade of the Strait of Ormuz.

The Hutis claim that military operations in Yemen do not seek to reach commercial navigation, except for Saudi ships, which have been subject to a blockade of the rebels since July.

The leader of the Hutis rebels today warned Turkey and Pakistan not to engage in Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen after these three Muslim countries signed a joint defence agreement.

“ We advise the Turks and Pakistanis not to be involved in the political and material gains of the Saudi enemy,” said Abdelmalik al Huti, in a speech broadcast on television on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the conquest of the capital, Sanaa, by the Hutis in 2014, when the war broke out in Yemen and the rebels took control of much of the country’s northwest.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defence agreement on 7 August stipulating that any attack on one of these countries will be considered an assault on the three at a time when the Hutis were intensifying their military operations in Saudi territory.

In this context, he said that, so far, Saudi combat aircraft have launched more than 760 air raids in their campaign against Hutis positions in Yemen, and accused Riyadh of bombing civil bridges and installations, as well as the central prison of Al Yauf (center-north), where prisoners died, according to the rebel leader.