MEZIESBLOG

EARLIER, Rishi Sunak said the UK would not hesitate to launch further airstrikes against the Houthis if attacks on shipping continued.

It came after the UK and US launched a second round of strikes on the group.

Media professional Dominic Waghorn says there are a “number of problems here for the British and Americans.

The first is whether the action can be effective and the second is looking at if it is in any way counter-productive.

“Rishi Sunak says it is completely unrelated to what is happening in Gaza but frankly that is disingenuous nonsense because the Houthis say they are doing this to stand up for their Arab brothers and sisters in Gaza,” he says.

Waghorn says you can question the sincerity of this of course and it is most likely they are doing this “for propaganda reasons”.

He says the problem for the UK and US is the Houthis are fighting this for propaganda reasons and they are “winning the PR war”.

“That is certainly how it will be seen by tens of thousands of Arabs,” he says.

“The Arab Street will be supporting what they are doing to some extent.

“What they are able to say now is Britain and America are bombing one of the poorest countries in the world in support of another country doing something very similar in another poor part of the world – Gaza.

“Right or wrong, that claim is going to be supporting the Houthi cause and is doing them a lot of good in a propaganda sense.”

He says this means it is “a very problematic campaign the British and Americans are engaged in”.