DUBAI, January 16. /TASS/. During a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called the US and British attack on Yemen a strategic mistake, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its official Telegram channel.

"Iran’s top diplomat called the illicit attack on Yemen by the US and UK a strategic mistake that will lead to escalation in the region," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. According to the diplomatic agency, Amir-Abdollahian also reiterated "the firm position of the Islamic Republic [of Iran] to ensure safe navigation in the Red Sea," and added that Yemen's main goal was to end the war in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the top Iranian diplomat expressed concern about the situation in the Gaza Strip and declared Iran's readiness to send humanitarian aid to the embattled Palestinian enclave, the statement said.

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip on October 7 of last year, the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthi movement) claimed that it would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated the Jewish state to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv stopped its military operation in the Palestinian enclave. On the night of January 12, British and US forces attacked Houthi infrastructure facilities in several Yemeni cities, including the country’s capital, Sana’a, and the west coast city of Hodeidah. US President Joe Biden said that the operation was a defensive response to the "unprecedented Houthi attacks" on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.