UN Security Council okays measure demanding immediate end to Houthi attacks in Red Sea
US envoy warns ‘there’ll be consequences’ if
attacks continue, as forum adopts resolution implicitly condemning Iran
for arming the Yemeni rebels; Russia and China among abstainers
UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council demanded an immediate halt
to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea in a
resolution adopted Wednesday that implicitly condemned their main
weapons supplier — Iran.
The resolution, sponsored by the United States and Japan, was
approved by a vote of 11-0 with four abstentions – Russia, China,
Algeria and Mozambique.
It condemns “in the strongest terms” at least two dozen attacks
carried out by the Houthis on merchant and commercial vessels, which the
resolution says are impeding global commerce and undermining
navigational freedom.
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 with the aim of ending Israel’s devastating
air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, which was launched in
response to the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7 surprise
onslaught, in which thousands of terrorists killed about 1,200 people —
mostly civilians — and took about 240 hostage.
A US-led coalition of nations has been patrolling the Red Sea to try
to prevent the attacks. In the past day, the Houthis fired their
largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the
Red Sea, which the US and British navies shot down in a major naval
engagement.
Last week the US and 12 other countries issued a statement calling
for the immediate end of Houthi attacks and warning that further attacks
would require collective action. “The Houthis will bear the
responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten
lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s
critical waterways,” they said.
In this image provided by the US Navy, the
amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall and amphibious assault ship
USS Bataan transit the Bab al-Mandeb strait on August 9, 2023. (Mass
Communications Spc. 2nd Class Moises Sandoval/US Navy via AP)
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council Wednesday: “If the Houthi attacks continue, there will be consequences.”
She said the United States knows Iran is involved in planning Houthi
attacks, and while it isn’t seeking a confrontation with Tehran, “Iran
also has a choice: to continue providing or withhold its support for the
Houthis, without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track
and strike vessels through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”
Immediately before the vote, the council overwhelmingly rejected
three proposed Russian amendments. At least nine “yes” votes and no veto
are needed in the 15-member Security Council for approval of an
amendment or a resolution. Two of the proposed amendments got just four
“yes” votes and one got five. The United States and United Kingdom both
voted against all three amendments, but their vetoes didn’t count
because the amendments failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow condemned the attacks
on civilian vessels but called the resolution “politicized,” saying
Moscow believes the real aim of the coalition “cobbled together” by the
US and its allies ostensibly to ensure security is really to legitimize
its actions and get an open-ended blessing from the Security Council for
future activities.
The defeated amendments said the resolution would not set a
precedent, and would have replaced a provision taking note “of the right
of member states, in accordance with international law, to defend their
vessels from attacks, including those that undermine navigational
rights and freedoms.” A third amendment would have added language to
reflect that “the escalation in the Gaza is a main root cause of the
current situation in the Red Sea,” Nebenzia said.
Yemenis in Houthi-controlled territory
brandishing their guns chant slogans during a march in solidarity with
the people of Gaza, in the capital Sanaa on December 15, 2023. (MOHAMMED
HUWAIS / AFP)
Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of proposing the amendments “in bad
faith at the last minute,” telling the council they were “divorced from
reality.”
“The Houthis are simply intoxicated with power,” she said, The
proposed amendment “falsely” citing the conflict in Gaza as the cause of
the rebel attacks would only further embolden the Houthis and establish
“a dangerous precedent for the council to legitimize these violations
of international law,” she said.
“The Houthis are targeting a range of vessels, few of which are owned
or operated by Israelis,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “And so, what is at
issue here is not any particular conflict, but rather the simple
principle of upholding freedom of navigation and a waterway vital to the
free flow of global commerce.”
The resolution also demands the immediate release of the first ship
the Houthis attacked, the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship
with links to an Israeli company that it seized on November 19 along
with its crew.
This handout satellite picture released by
Maxar Technologies on November 28, 2023, shows the Galaxy Leader, which
was captured by Houthi fighters on November 19, next to a support vessel
in the southern Red Sea near Hodeida, Yemen. (Satellite image ©2023
Maxar Technologies/AFP)
The Red Sea links the Mideast and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal,
and its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Nearly 10% of all oil trade and an
estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually. But the
Houthi attacks have forced many shipping companies to bypass this route
and use the much longer and more expensive route around the Cape of
Good Hope in Africa.
The resolution affirms that “the exercise of navigational rights and
freedoms by merchant and commercial vessels, in accordance with
international law, must be respected.”
Thomas-Greenfield lashed out at Iran for supplying advanced weapons
systems to the Houthis in violation of UN sanctions including drones,
land attack cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, which she said have
all been used in attacks on vessels.
Without naming Iran, the resolution condemns all arms dealings with
the rebels, which violate Security Council sanctions and calls for
“additional practical cooperation to prevent the Houthis from acquiring
the materiel necessary to carry out further attacks.”
Russia and others have warned that adoption of the resolution could
impact a tentative cease-fire between the Houthis and a Saudi-led
coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government that has held
for months despite that country’s long war. And there is growing concern
that any wider conflict in the sea — or a potential reprisal strike
from Western forces — could reignite those tensions in the Arab world’s
poorest nation.
The resolution recognizes the need to avoid escalating the situation.
It “urges caution and restraint to avoid further escalation of the
situation in the Red Sea and the broader region.” And it “encourages
enhanced diplomatic efforts by all parties to that end, including
continued support for dialogue and Yemen’s peace process under the UN
auspices.”