The Houthis still control most of Yemen’s population, and they’ve attacked, or tried to attack, civilian infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia. That’s the backdrop to Britain’s decision to refuel Royal Saudi Air Force fighter jets as hostilities escalate in and around Yemen, and to an open letter from academics and campaign groups demanding that London stop.
The letter went to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. Its signatories said they were “deeply concerned” and warned that “there is a real risk that further UK military support for Saudi Arabia will not achieve the desired outcome and could make the UK complicit in further war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.”
The Security Picture
The letter itself concedes the pressure on Riyadh. Signatories raised concerns about Houthi attacks and attempted attacks on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. They also acknowledged that the Saudi-led intervention, which began in 2015 and initially involved a coalition of Arab states, has failed to defeat or dislodge the Houthis.
They linked the latest escalation to three developments: events inside Yemen, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the war in Gaza. They also referred to pressure on global shipping routes. In their account, Yemen’s fighting is bound up with a wider regional confrontation.
The human toll is heavy. Fighting has displaced around 130,000 people in recent weeks and caused 110 casualties, including 28 deaths, according to reports cited in the letter.
The Case Against London
The letter describes British support for Saudi military action as longstanding. It cites the Yemen Data Project, which recorded 25,054 Saudi-led coalition air raids between 2015 and 2022, and a United Nations Development Programme estimate that the conflict had killed 377,000 people directly and indirectly by the end of 2021. It also refers to allegations that the coalition used starvation as a weapon.
The groups say extensive evidence shows the air campaign hit civilians and civilian infrastructure. They also criticised Britain’s role in U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis in spring 2025, which the UK reportedly supported with refuelling. A Pentagon assessment found, they noted, that the strikes between March and May 2025 “more likely than not” caused 281 civilian casualties.
The signatories include the Campaign Against Arms Trade, Action on Armed Violence, Shadow World Investigations UK and the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. Academics and specialists from the universities of Oxford, Bristol, Westminster, Sussex, King’s College London, Warwick, Royal Holloway and Northumbria also signed.
Diplomatic Dead End
Their prescription is diplomacy. “Past experience has shown that air strikes will not contribute to defeating the Houthis or alleviating pressure on Saudi Arabia or on global shipping routes,” they wrote. “Instead, the UK is only further fuelling the war and is risking complicity in further crimes.”
They urged the government “not to involve itself in Saudi operations and focus on de-escalatory diplomacy.” De-escalation, they argued, offers a route towards peace in Yemen and could reduce the wider economic consequences of the region’s interconnected wars.
The letter doesn’t explain how diplomacy would stop Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure. Nor does it spell out how diplomacy would ease pressure on shipping routes while the Houthis hold most of Yemen’s population. The war has now run 11 years since Saudi military action began in 2015.
Why This Matters: Britain’s refuelling role puts London directly in the middle of a regional confrontation that the letter’s own authors link to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the war in Gaza. If Western governments pull back support while the Houthis keep their grip on most of Yemen’s population and attack civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the security burden on Riyadh grows and shipping routes stay exposed. That’s one perspective on the stakes. The rights concerns raised by the signatories are serious, too, and point to a real dilemma for London: how to support a partner under attack without becoming implicated in civilian harm.