Britain is poised to send an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea to counter drone and missile attacks from Houthi rebels.

The Royal Navy is preparing to step in to replace USS Dwight D Eisenhower when it returns to America, as the Houthis warned of a “long-term confrontation” in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

James Heappey, the armed forces minister, said on Tuesday that the UK may “co-operate with the Americans” and step in to “plug a gap” in the Red Sea.

The UK has two aircraft carriers designed to carry F-35 fighter jets. One is HMS Prince of Wales, which would face its first combat operation if it were deployed. The other is HMS Queen Elizabeth, which has been sent into combat once before.

On Tuesday, Mohamed al-Atifi, the commander of the Iran-backed Houthi forces, said the group was prepared for a long conflict over the Red Sea, where it has launched dozens of drone and missile attacks against commercial and naval ships since November.

The attacks have caused major delays for global shipping, as tankers and container ships are re-rerouted around Africa to avoid the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, the entry point to the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti.

Britain and the US have launched two rounds of joint air strikes on Houthi drone and missile sites, using American F/A-18 Super Hornet jets from USS Eisenhower, and the RAF’s Typhoons launched from a base in southern Cyprus.

However, Mr Heappey said the US carrier, nicknamed “Ike”, must soon return to the US. “The Eisenhower can’t stay there forever, and so there’s a thing about just maintaining a carrier presence in the region where we might cooperate with the Americans to provide a capability there,” he told The House magazine.

He said Royal Navy carriers could be used “when the Eisenhower goes home… if we were needed to plug a gap in US deployments”.

The plans come after weeks of calls for the UK to deploy one of its £3.1 billion aircraft carriers, which are both based in Portsmouth.

The Telegraph revealed this month that HMS Queen Elizabeth was not at optimal readiness for deployment because of a Navy staffing shortage that had affected RFA Fort Victoria, the solid support ship that provides it with ammunition, food and other supplies while at sea.

Navy carriers ready to be deployed if needed

Lord West, the former First Sea Lord, previously said it was “absolutely extraordinary” that the UK had not deployed a carrier to protect commercial ships, although Mr Heappey said on Tuesday that there was “no real need… for more carriers to be in the region than the Ike can provide”. 

A sea trial of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2019 was aborted after the ship sprung a leak. However, a defence source said both carriers were now ready to be deployed if necessary. They stressed the “interoperability” between US and UK forces, after American F-35B jets took off from the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth during Operation Shader against Islamic State in 2021.

“If we make a decision, we will tailor the package from there,” the source said.

The UK is not set to reach “full operating capacity” – with two squadrons of its own F-35 jets – until next year, but each carrier can support up to 36 jets.

Cameron open to creating Palestinian state

Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, travelled to Oman on Tuesday, where he is expected to call for stability over the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

Earlier, Lord Cameron said Britain was considering whether to formally recognise a Palestinian state. He told a reception of Arab ambassadors in London that the Government had a “responsibility” to work towards a two-state solution, which would result in an independent Palestinian state coexisting with the nation of Israel.

“Most important of all is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon so that they can see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and, crucially, the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“We have a responsibility there because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work and, crucially, looking at the issue … of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.”

In Oman, the Foreign Secretary will reiterate Britain’s commitment to delivering aid to Yemen, and outline the actions the UK is taking to deter the Houthis from targeting ships in the Red Sea.

The news came after Joe Biden said he had made a decision on how to respond to Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria who fired on an American base in northern Jordan on Sunday killing three US troops.

Asked if he believed Iran was responsible for the attack, the president said: “I do hold them responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.”

Washington pledged a “very consequential” response to the attacks. John Kirby, the White House’s National Security spokesman, said the US had still not identified the specific group that attacked the US base, but believed the militants had Iranian backing. 

“We’re still working through the analysis, but clearly the work has all the hallmarks of groups that are backed by the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and, and in fact by Hezbollah as well,” he said.

Kataib Hezbollah, the group blamed for the fatal drone attack, said on Tuesday it would halt its attacks on American forces in the Middle East.

“We’re announcing the suspension of our military and security operations against the occupying forces to avoid any embarrassment for the Iraqi government,” it wrote on its website.