The international reaction to the Thursday night US-UK coalition bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen continues to come in, with the more interesting of the statements being issued by Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Friday statements to the press in Istanbul said that the attack would turn the Red Sea into a "bloodbath". He also condemned the Western coalition operation as "disproportionate" despite the previous over two dozen attacks on commercial shipping of the last months by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
"First of all, they are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force," Erdoğa told journalists. "It is as if they aspire to turn the Red Sea into a bloodbath."
The Turkish leader has lately been outspoken in support of Gaza, and condemnation of Israel's military operation, but it remains somewhat surprising that the man who leads the second largest military within the NATO alliance would say things that are actually supportive of the Houthi side. Watch:
More predictably, Russia too condemned the strikes on Yemen, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying Friday, "We strongly condemn these irresponsible actions by the United States and its allies." She further told reporters that Moscow has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
"A large-scale military escalation in the Red Sea region could strike out the positive trends that have emerged recently in the Yemeni settlement process, as well as provoke a destabilization of the situation throughout the Middle East," she warned.
Notably, Russia and China had on Wednesday abstained from a UNSC resolution demanding that the Houthis immediately halt all attacks on international shipping.
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