Istanbul, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday US and British strikes on Yemen’s Houthis were “disproportionate”, alleging the US and Britain wanted to turn Red Sea into a “bloodbath”.
“First of all, they are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force,” Erdogan told journalists after Friday prayers in Istanbul.
“It is as if they aspire to turn the Red Sea into a bloodbath.”
The US and British strikes came in response to Houthi attacks on what they deemed to be Israeli-linked ships travelling in the Red Sea.
Erdogan said his government had received news from various channels that the Houthis were conducting “successful defense and gave successful answers both to the US and Britain”.
Oman condemned American and British strikes on targets in rebel-held Yemen on Friday, warning of the risk of escalating conflict in the region.
Oman, a mediator in attempts to end Yemen’s long-running civil war, expressed its “worry” at the strikes on Houthi rebel military targets that, according to the Houthis, left five people dead.
The Gulf sultanate “can only condemn the use of military action by friendly countries” while Israel pursues war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said a foreign ministry spokesman, according to official media.
“Oman has warned several times about the risk of the extension of the conflict in the region due to the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian territories,” it said.
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry also expressed “great concern” about the strikes, echoing the view of Yemen’s powerful neighbor Saudi Arabia, which is trying to extricate itself from a nine-year war with the Houthis.
The kingdom voiced its own concern after the UK and US military action, calling for “self-restraint and avoiding escalation”.
In Bahrain, another of Yemen’s Arab Gulf neighbors, protesters marched holding Palestinian flags and pro-Yemen banners after Friday prayers, denouncing the strikes.
