Royal Navy: Grant Shapps greets HMS Diamond sailors in Red Sea and vows action will be taken against Houthis

Grant Shapps said he met the HMS Diamond company to thank them for defending freedom of navigation, after the Iran-backed group said they would continue targeting vessels, including those from Britain. It comes after the UK Government held crisis talks with the shipping industry to say it will not allow international maritime trade to be “held to ransom”.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has said the situation remains “concerning” as attacks persisted despite RAF airstrikes on Houthi positions. The UK joined the US in carrying out strikes against the group in Yemen last week, but ships have continued to be targeted along the vital Red Sea and Gulf of Aden trade routes.

Shipping lines and oil giants have diverted vessels away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal, but the alternative route around southern African adds time and costs, which could hamper efforts to tackle inflation. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Shapps said he had visited the company on Thursday to thank them “for their incredible work defending freedom of navigation, saving innocent lives and ensuring merchant shipping is protected from the illegal Houthi attacks”.

The US military said on Thursday that it had fired another wave of ship and submarine-launched missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites. It marks the fourth time in recent days that it has directly targeted the group in Yemen as violence ignited in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war continues to spill over in the Middle East. US President Joe Biden said the strikes would continue, but acknowledged they had not yet stopped the Houthi attacks.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations, which acts as a link between the Royal Navy and shipping, said it had received a report on Thursday about an attack 85 nautical miles south-east of Ash Shihr in Yemen, involving four drones flying close to a ship with one hitting the water “in close proximity to the vessel”. Another incident was reported 115 nautical miles south-east of Aden in Yemen, with drones reported close to a merchant vessel and an “explosion in the water” about 30 metres away from it, although the ship and crew were safe.

The Houthi rebels, who support Hamas in its war against Israel, say they have targeted ships with links to Tel Aviv, but vessels without obvious connections have also been hit. Supreme leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi, in his first comments since allied airstrikes started, said western military action does “not scare us” as he vowed to continue targeting ships linked to Israel, as well as vessels with British and American ties.

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron met his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian while in Davos for the World Economic Forum on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including an emerging clash between Tehran and Pakistan. He said Iran should “expect a very strong response” from the West for both its backing of proxies in the region, with the Islamic republic a known supporter of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and its recent attacks on Pakistan and Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. According to an online translation, Mr Amir-Abdollahian said on X that he told Lord Cameron that “America and England should immediately stop supporting the war crimes of the Zionist apartheid regime against the Palestinians”.