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NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed its overwhelming condemnation of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and near-unanimous solidarity with Riyadh, as member states warned that Yemen risked sliding back into full-scale war for the first time since a 2022 truce agreement.<\/p>\n
The emergency session was requested by the UK, the council\u2019s penholder on Yemen, and Bahrain after Houthi forces launched renewed missile and drone strikes on Sept. 8 against several targets in southern Saudi Arabia, including a military air base and energy facilities.<\/p>\n
The attacks injured 73 people, including women and children, and sparked fires that temporarily disrupted operations at a major oil refinery in Jazan.<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, told the council that his repeated warnings of a return to large-scale conflict had \u201cnow turned into a harsh reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houthi forces had seized the port city of Mokha, he said, giving them \u201ca direct presence on the shores of the world\u2019s most vital straits\u201d and raising further concern over freedom of navigation.<\/p>\n
Fighting had spread to Marib, Jouf and Al-Baida, he added, civilians were killed in Taiz, Hodeidah, Al-Baida and Jouf, and the shelling of displacement sites in Marib had killed children and destroyed shelters.<\/p>\n
More than 11,400 households have been displaced nationwide since Sept. 3, mostly from Taiz, Grundberg said, and fighting continues to drive people from their homes.<\/p>\n
He added that the UN had condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian and energy infrastructure, in which dozens of civilians were wounded. He repeated his call for the Houthis to halt attacks inside Yemen and across the border, as well as strikes and threats against commercial shipping.<\/p>\n
The escalation, he said, risks \u201cdragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions.\u201d He urged all parties to respect international law and preserve the path to a political settlement.<\/p>\n
Speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Bahrain\u2019s envoy to the UN, Jamal Fares Alrowaiei, said the bloc \u201cstrongly condemns Houthi terrorist attacks against the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia\u201d and the deliberate targeting of civilians and facilities in violation of international law and the UN Charter.<\/p>\n
He said the strikes \u201cconstitute a serious escalation and direct threat to the security and stability of the region,\u201d and that GCC member states view the security of Saudi Arabia as \u201can integral part\u201d of their own security.<\/p>\n
The bloc backed all measures taken by the Kingdom to protect its citizens and assets under its right to self-defense, and condemned Houthi threats to maritime security and freedom of navigation. It called on the council to hold \u201cperpetrators and supporters\u201d accountable.<\/p>\n
Jen Neidhart, political coordinator at the US Mission to the UN, said the strikes on Sept. 8 were \u201conly the latest example\u201d of the Houthis\u2019 \u201cblatant disregard\u201d for Saudi sovereignty and civilian life.<\/p>\n
The group had used the same tactics against its own people, she added, bombing cities, displacing thousands of Yemeni families and destroying port infrastructure in Mokha worth tens of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
She said the attacks were \u201cflagrant violations\u201d of both Saudi and Yemeni sovereignty and posed \u201ca direct threat to regional and global energy security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neidhart said the Houthis were \u201cagents and tools of Iran,\u201d that \u201cthe Iranian hand behind these attacks is clear,\u201d and she linked the strikes to a broader campaign to disrupt shipping the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and threaten global commerce.<\/p>\n
The US, she added, \u201cstands firmly with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia\u201d and its right to defend its territory and citizens, as well as with Yemen’s government in its fight against \u201cHouthi terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington demanded ab immediate end to all Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia, Yemen\u2019s legitimate government, and international shipping, and called for stronger enforcement of existing Security Council resolutions to cut off the resources that sustain the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe council must speak with one voice,\u201d Neidhart said. \u201cThis escalation is unacceptable and those who enable it bear responsibility for its consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Kate Foster, said the Houthis bear \u201cfull responsibility for this crisis.\u201d She said their actions threatened freedom of navigation and transit through the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait, the consequences of which would be \u201cfelt first and hardest by developing countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted that more than 22 million Yemenis needed humanitarian assistance and more than 18 million faced acute food insecurity, and said Iran\u2019s \u201clong-standing support for the Houthis continues to fuel instability,\u201d as she called on Tehran to halt transfers of arms and other military support to the group.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s envoy, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, condemned strikes on civilian and economic targets in Abha, Jazan and Najran as a \u201cflagrant violation\u201d of Saudi sovereignty, and expressed his country\u2019s \u201ccomplete solidarity\u201d with the Kingdom and its right to defend itself.<\/p>\n
The Danish deputy permanent representative, Sandra Jensen Landi, said Copenhagen \u201cstrongly condemns\u201d the latest attacks and urged the Houthis to end all strikes inside Yemen and against international shipping.<\/p>\n
She called on Iran to refrain from provocations or threats against regional states, including through proxies, and to cease its support for the Houthis, which she said threatened the stability of Yemen and the wider region.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s envoy, Fu Cong, stopped short of directly blaming the Houthis. He expressed concern over the \u201csharp escalation\u201d and said the civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure were deplorable, as he condemned \u201call indiscriminate attacks on civilians and nonmilitary targets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation had \u201creached a critical juncture\u201d requiring intensified international peace efforts, he added, calling for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both Yemen and Saudi Arabia to be respected, and urging all parties to move toward de-escalation and a political solution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n