Grundberg condemns Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia as Security Council holds emergency session
Yemen Herald News 
AMMAN, Jordan — The UN special envoy for Yemen condemned Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, saying they risk widening the conflict beyond Yemen’s borders.
Hans Grundberg issued the statement on the social media platform X.
The attacks threaten to widen the conflict, put civilians at grave risk and undermine efforts toward a political solution, Grundberg said.
He said the strikes had hit civilian and economic infrastructure, including energy facilities, and that dozens of civilians were reported injured.
Grundberg called on the Houthis to halt the attacks, and to stop attacks inside Yemen that he said had also put civilians at grave risk.
Houthi attacks on commercial vessels, which the Security Council recently condemned, must also cease, he said.
International humanitarian law prohibits attacks directed against civilians and civilian objects, Grundberg said.
The Saudi-led coalition said the attacks on 8 September wounded 73 people in the kingdom’s south. It said the wounded included women and children.
The coalition did not break the figure down by city. Fires broke out at several energy installations.
The attacks struck Khamis Mushait, Abha and Jazan, according to the coalition and to international news reports.
The Houthis said the strikes answered an alleged Saudi attack that killed seven people in al-Jawf province. Yemen Herald could not independently verify either account.
Saudi forces carried out at least 15 strikes on Houthi targets between 3 September and Monday, according to international news reports.
The Security Council met on Yemen after the attacks. Bahrain and the United Kingdom, which holds the pen on Yemen, requested the session.
Saudi Arabia and Yemen took part under rule 37, which lets states that are not Council members join a discussion.
Grundberg told the 15-member Council that Yemen faces a more serious risk of a return to large-scale conflict than at any point since the 2022 UN-mediated truce.
He said fighting had spread across the provinces of Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda.
More than 11,400 households have been displaced since 3 September, Grundberg told the Council.
Council members condemned the attacks on Saudi Arabia and warned that the fighting could draw in the wider region, Arab News reported.
Grundberg has served as the UN special envoy for Yemen since 2021.
The escalation began on 3 September, when Houthi forces opened an offensive on Yemen’s western coast.
Houthi units pressed from western Taiz, southern Hodeidah and the city of Mocha, Al Jazeera reported.
Houthi fighters took Mocha on Thursday, the broadcaster and other outlets reported. The city sits on the Red Sea north of the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
Government-aligned units withdrew south toward Dhubab. Tareq Saleh’s National Resistance, the Giants Brigades and the Nation’s Shield forces were among them.
The Houthis also took Jabal al-Nar, high ground that housed the National Resistance command on the west coast, Al Jazeera reported.
Saleh ordered what he described as a tactical withdrawal and repositioning, and told commanders to set up an alternative command centre, the broadcaster reported.
Houthi forces seized Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea, using rocket fire and a ground assault mounted from boats, the same outlet reported.
Residents left Mocha for Aden province in large numbers as government forces redeployed, the Yemen Monitor reported.
Bab al-Mandeb links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Traffic through it feeds the Suez Canal.
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council said this week that it would not allow the strait to become a second Strait of Hormuz, according to the Yemen Monitor.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba told the Arab League on 9 September that Red Sea security rested on Yemeni sovereignty.
Yemen’s foreign ministry condemned the attacks on Saudi Arabia and called for enforcement of the arms embargo on the Houthis.
The Houthis reject the government’s account of the fighting. The group says its operations answer attacks on Yemeni territory.
Grundberg had warned two days earlier that the escalation was, in his words, extremely dangerous, and said the rising intensity of clashes was a grave concern.
He said then that a return to large-scale, sustained fighting would carry consequences for civilians after more than a decade of war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia unacceptable during talks in Moscow.
The US embassy to Yemen said Yemen and Saudi Arabia had the right to defend themselves against the Houthis.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Houthis were acting as agents and proxies of Iran.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said the Houthis would bear full responsibility for what he called a military escalation.
The European Union condemned the attacks and tied Yemen’s stability to Red Sea security.
A UN-mediated truce took effect in April 2022. Front lines were largely quiet for much of the period that followed.
The International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 30,000 people displaced inside Yemen this year, with fighting in Taiz a leading driver.
The United Nations says more than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance.
Some 18.3 million are acutely food insecure and 5.2 million are internally displaced, according to the 2026 humanitarian needs and response plan.
More than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
The plan seeks $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people.
Grundberg did not say when he would next travel to Sanaa.
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