News - Middle East: Iraq’s foreign ministry on Friday condemned US and UK strikes on targets in Yemen, warning against the expansion of the conflict.

“We condemn the aggression against Yemen and its sovereignty. We believe that expanding the scope of targets does not represent a solution to the problem, rather, it will lead to an expansion of the scope of the war,” read a statement from the Iraqi foreign ministry.

The US and UK launched a series of aerial and navy strikes against Yemen in response to the repeated attacks that Yemen conducted on Israeli-bounded ships in the Red Sea. The aggression was conducted with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.

After the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, Yemen vowed that it would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with Israel to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the operation in the Palestinian enclave stopped.

In the statement, the Iraqi foreign ministry reaffirmed the importance of “preserving freedom of navigation in international waters.” 

The Iraqi foreign ministry called on the UN Security Council to put a halt to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

“The solution lies in the UN Security Council exercising its responsibilities and issuing a resolution to stop the aggressive and brutal war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” read the statement.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Friday condemned strikes by the US and the UK, and Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations, on the same day, requested an urgent Security Council meeting on the matter.

Earlier, the Yemeni Armed Forces have announced that the US-British aggression against Yemen will not go unpunished.

"US-British enemy, as part of its support for the ongoing Israeli crimes in Gaza, launched a brutal aggression against Yemen with 73 airstrikes," the official spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Yahya Sare'e said in a statement.

Sare’e affirmed that the US and UK bear full responsibility for their criminal aggression against the Yemeni people.

He emphasized that the Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target threat sources and all hostile targets on land and at sea, in defense of Yemen, its sovereignty, and independence.