On Monday, the US representative on the UN Security Council, Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood, called on the UN to “condemn Iran” for curbing rampant terrorist activities by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea.
wood Said The evidence suggests that the “scale and variety” of weapons currently being received by the Houthis, largely backed by Iran, is “unprecedented” and illegal, and that the Security Council It says some action is needed. Wood declined to call for specific sanctions, calling only for “collective action” targeting the Houthis and possibly Iran.
The Security Council met on Monday to discuss the decade-long conflict in Yemen and its destabilizing impact on the Middle East generally. The Houthis, officially known as Ansarullah, are a Shiite jihadist terrorist group that has taken control of the capital Sanaa since 2014, ousting the legitimate government and forcing its leaders into the southern city of Aden.The Houthis tie one’s necktie It relies heavily on Iranian support to maintain control over much of the country, the world’s most ambitious state sponsor of terrorism.
Houthi terrorists have long threatened Yemen’s neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, which they repeatedly bomb, but have become a global problem following October’s declaration of war against Israel. This war primarily took the form of operations against merchant ships in the Red Sea. Houthi leaders claim they are targeting only ships plying to and from Israeli ports with the aim of weakening Jerusalem and supporting the Iranian-backed jihadist group Hamas, but in reality, Israeli and its allies, attacking ships that have no clear ties to the United States or its allies. In some cases, Houthi attacks have affected ships with ties to countries with which Ansarallah says it seeks positive relations, including Russia, China and its biggest benefactor, Iran.
Houthi activities in the Red Sea are causing significant damage to international trade. Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, announced in early May that it would completely suspend operations in the Red Sea “for the time being” in response to terrorism in its waters.
Monday’s Security Council meeting addressed Houthi terrorism and human rights abuses in Yemen.
“The sad reality today is that Houthi attacks on merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea continue to make progress toward sustainable peace and worsen the humanitarian situation for the Yemeni people,” Wood US the envoy said. Said Council.
“If the Security Council wants to return to a more hopeful outlook for Yemen, we must take clear and simple collective action,” he suggested. “We must jointly condemn Iran’s destabilizing role and insist that we cannot hide behind the Houthis.”
“We reiterate our call on Iran to cease illegal arms transfers and enable the Houthis to carry out illegal and reckless attacks,” Wood continued.
Wood said experts and state officials have compiled “extensive evidence that Iran has provided advanced weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles, to the Houthis in violation of U.N. sanctions,” and that the Security Council must comply with international law. He pointed out that there is a responsibility to promote this.
He ultimately called for only “continued discussions” on increasing inspections of ships carrying weapons to the Houthis, rather than direct action against terrorists.
President Joe Biden’s administration has struggled to implement successful policies to curb Houthi terrorism. As a result of the president’s decision to remove the Houthis from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), the organization’s funding and arms capabilities increased dramatically in the early days of the Biden administration. The designation imposes onerous sanctions on terrorist organizations that continue to operate in the Red Sea but do not return.
In January, following a series of terrorist attacks by Ansarullah in the Red Sea, the Biden administration announced that it would brand the Houthis as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” (SDGT), but this was done through the U.S. Treasury Department rather than the State Department. It is an imposed subordinate designation. Critics lamented that little could be done to prevent countries such as Iran from funding the group. Biden himself had declared the terrorist designation of the Houthis “irrelevant” shortly before the SDGT label was imposed.
In addition to the designation, the Biden administration also established Operation Prosperity Guardian, a coalition said to have brought together more than 10 countries to provide security for commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The operation was plagued by uncertainty from the beginning. Major powers in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, refused to participate, and some that did did not provide naval assets or clear material support. It remains unclear what actions the ships associated with Operation Prosperity Guardian took, as the Pentagon maintains that U.S. and British airstrikes against Houthi assets in Yemen were unrelated to that plan. It is not clear at the time of writing this article.
As of May 7, Pentagon Spokesperson Sabrina Singh claimed Operation Prosperity Guardian was “an ongoing coalition effort to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.” She did not specify specific actions taken in connection with the operation.
