UN calls on Iran-backed Houthis to stop attacks on Red Sea shipping
The United Nations is calling on Yemen’s Houthi rebels to implement the Security Council resolution adopted last week demanding an immediate halt to its attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“We’re very concerned by the continuing strikes,” says UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
The Iranian-backed Houthis, who have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2014, have said they launched the attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the war triggered by Hamas’s October 7 shock assault.
The UN resolution condemns the more than two dozen Houthi attacks which have disrupted one of the world’s major trade routes and raised shipping costs.
Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday about the situation in the Red Sea and in Gaza. The UN chief “reiterated his call to all the parties to avoid any further escalation” in Yemen and implement last week’s resolution, and reiterated the need for greater humanitarian access in Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages, the UN spokesman said.
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, who has been consulting with all sides, spoke to the Iranian foreign minister’s senior advisor, Ali Asghar Khaji earlier Tuesday, Dujarric said.
They discussed “the need to maintain an environment conducive to constructive dialogue and sustained concerted regional efforts to peace in Yemen,” the UN spokesperson said.
Grundberg and others then briefed the Security Council behind closed doors.