U.S. Strikes On Houthis The Beginning Of Response: White House

In Iran, U.S.-Iran news, the White House has said that the US airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in West Asia is the beginning of a sustained response.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said the strikes, which were carried out on Friday night against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, designed as retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers, “were the beginning, not the end of our response, and … there will be more steps, some seen, some perhaps unseen, all in an effort to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond and we will respond forcefully”.

On February 5, US forces conducted a strike in self-defence and struck four anti-ship cruise missiles, all of which it says were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.

Earlier, the Iranian government had warned the US that any move against the Iranian-flagged ship Behshad, which Washington suspects of providing surveillance information to Houthis, would be at risk of those taking such steps.

Tehran’s warning came after a third wave of US and UK strikes hit 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on February 3. The ongoing US assault on Houthis has the support of six other countries, including Canada, the Netherlands and Bahrain.

UK PM Rishi Sunak on February 4 said that the strikes were in self-defence and that he would not “hesitate to protect British lives”

“Since the last set of strikes, we have seen the Houthis continue to attack shipping in the Red Sea…That is obviously unacceptable. It is illegal. It puts innocent people’s lives at risk and it has economic consequences. It includes attacks, by the way, on British-linked vessels. And that is why we have acted again in self-defence, in a proportionate way, and together with our allies,” he added.

The US is trying to press Tehran to rein in allied forces across the region, while Iran is trying to push back the American presence in the region.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, several constituents of the government considered close to Iran have demanded the end of US troops in their country, claiming Washington was taking the region to “the edge of an abyss”.