Strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen could undermine US aim to contain war

It is time to stop talking about the risk that the war in Gaza will spread elsewhere in the Middle East. It has already happened.

Hopes for containing what is happening rest on the fact that it is still relatively low-level, compared to the worst-case scenarios of regional war.

The US and British attacks on the Houthis in Yemen are not just, as ministers in London have suggested, about the freedom of navigation and world trade.

They are directly linked to events in Gaza and represent an escalation of the crisis that is gripping the region.