Why is Britain supporting Saudi Arabia in its fight against the Iran-backed Houthis?

Cheat Sheet with Ridge & Frost

The episode covers a diverse range of international and domestic news, beginning with the UK's decision to provide defensive military support to

Key takeaways

• The UK is providing air-to-air refueling support for Saudi Arabian planes on defensive missions against the Houthis.
• Piers Morgan has threatened legal action against Earl Spencer over inaccuracies in the book 'Swan Song'.

Main topics

• UK-Saudi military cooperation
• Piers Morgan vs Earl Spencer legal threat

Notable quotes

I'm willing to step up when, you know, I'm needed when the principles are right for us.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a comprehensive morning briefing on shifting geo

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) Sky News, the full story first. Speaker 1 (0:13) Good morning, I'm Wilf. I'm Sophie. And this is Cheat Sheet. On Speaker 2 (0:18) today's podcast, Britain will provide defensive military support to Saudi Arabia in their fight against the Houthis, a militant group in Yemen. Speaker 1 (0:27) Broadcaster Piers Morgan has threatened to sue Earl Spencer over fabricated inaccuracies in his new book about his late sister Diana. And Speaker 2 (0:36) is money the reason all these AI firms are suddenly talking about slowing down? So Andy Burnham has arrived in the United States where he's going to the UN General Assembly and he's also going to be meeting Donald Trump for his first face-to-face meeting. On that flight he revealed a, I would say, quite significant decision when it comes to foreign policy. He said that the UK is going to provide support for air-to-air refuelling for Saudi planes, Saudi Arabian planes, on defensive missions against the Houthis. Now this... is an intervention into an ongoing conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian-backed Houthis. The framing of this, though, is what I find fascinating because he's framing it as all about the cost of living. He's basically saying that because he's worried that the Houthis are going to close off another key oil strait that Saudi Arabia had been using when the Strait of Hormuz has been closed, that's why he's decided to step in. I go back to the point I made about the cost of living pressures, he said, and acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region. We need to keep those pathways open and hence our agreement to the request from Saudi Arabia. Speaker 1 (1:49) And obviously freedom of navigation is a globally accepted norm and maintaining it is a justifiable reason for military action. By the way, a few years ago, when Rishi Sunak was Prime Minister, David Cameron was Foreign Secretary, we went further than this. in terms of trying to maintain the freedom of navigation in the region and directly targeted some Houthi sites. This time, all we're doing is helping the Saudis do so. So I think all of that's relevant context. And clearly, there is a significant degree of separation from the US-Iran war, which I think people here obviously don't want the UK to get involved in. albeit the region clearly has lots of links across it. Look, I also think, you know, this is being done for those reasons and principle for something like this trumps everything else. But it's not inconvenient timing for the prime minister to show President Trump ahead of their meeting today, I'm willing to step up when, you know,