that the prime minister has taken to get involved in this american military action, a decision that no prime minister would take lightly. the line from the government is that this is an act of self—defence because of those attacks from houthi rebels on ships in the red sea, that this is a proportionate, measured approach. we'll wait and see whether there are more attacks in the coming days and whether this does escalate, because that is always the risk when you intervene militarily overseas, that things get out of hand. we've seen that with previous foreign interventions, so this is a decision they won't have taken lightly. the question is, what is the endgame here? there are countries like the iranians, who are allied with the houthis, the chinese and the russians — britain has difficult international relations with russia because of what is going on in ukraine. quite a delicate situation in that
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when we were talking of legislating for this, and it is liberal democrat policy to legislate this convention into law, it was understood that there will be times when the timing of these things is out of our hands, either in a quick response or because we are working with allies who decide the timing for us. it sounds like it's the us who have decided the timing on this one. we understand that that can happen, but that's why we are calling for an immediate vote. and even if it is retrospective, this might not be the end of it. we have heard of potentially retaliatory measures from the houthis and others. is this going to ignite something bigger? what is our plan for that? who have we spoken to? i don't think it is unreasonable that as mp5, we are able to ask this question on behalf of our constituents and then hold firm to the hard—fought conventions we forged in the wake of the iraq war.
that was the israeli spokesperson for legal and foreign affairs, tal becker. we will be back in the court when that session resumes. the united states and britain have carried out military strikes from the air and sea against houthi locations in yemen, in response to the rebels�* ongoing attacks on ships in the red sea. the us central command said over 60 targets at 16 houthi positions were attacked, including command centres, munitions depots and air defence systems. a houthi leader, mohammed al—bukhaiti, has condemned the attack and vowed to continue its support for palestinians in gaza and its attacks on ships in the red sea. russia and iran have condemned the attacks and china has expressed concern. the labour party leader sir keir starmer was briefed about the military action in yemen against the houthis on thursday evening — he was asked about that by my colleague charlie stayt on bbc breakfast this morning. i did get a security briefing last night from the cabinet office.
obviously, i can't tell you what the contents of that briefing was, but i think it is important that we had that briefing. when rishi sunak became prime minister, i had a phone call with him on the first day, the first night, and amongst other things, we agreed that we would robustly challenge each other on the politics of the day, but when it comes to national security, issues of defence of the country, that we would seek to cooperate and work together. so it's not a convention, but i think it is good that as leader of the opposition, i was brought in for a secure briefing in relation to what was happening. and you have given this full military action your support, is that correct? yes, we are supporting this action. the houthi attacks have been carried now for some time in the red sea. it's on commercial shipping, that's civilians who are operating that commercial shipping, and not only is it disrupting
there are questions that need to be answered. there is also a 20—year—old convention that came out of the debacle that was the iraq war that has been broken again. these things need to be debated, and then we could make up our minds. but to the principle of whether the houthis should be stopped, i would put it to the government that if they put pressure to have that immediate bilateral ceasefire, they take the rug out from under what the houthis are using as their excuse to commit these heinous acts. to put the government side, they say they are acting in self—defence. you will have heard them talking about how a british ship was attacked in the last 48 hours and that it was self—defence to disrupt the capacity of those attacks, notjust on commercial ships, but on a british warship. absolutely, i do understand.