Presidential Leadership Council member Bawazir meets Bahrain foreign minister Al Zayani in New York
Yemen Herald News 
NEW YORK, United States — Presidential Leadership Council member Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazir met Bahrain’s foreign minister in New York to discuss the Houthi offensive and Red Sea security.
The meeting was with Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, the state news agency Saba reported.
The account rests on Saba, which carried the Yemeni readout. No independent account of the meeting has been published, and Bahrain’s foreign ministry has not released a summary of its own.
Saba said the two discussed bilateral relations, developments in Yemen and the region, and regional security challenges.
Bawazir pressed for closer coordination between Yemen and Bahrain, according to the agency.
He praised what he called Bahrain’s continued support for Yemen.
He also restated Yemen’s solidarity with Bahrain and the Gulf states in confronting security threats, Saba reported.
Bawazir described the Houthi escalation as Iran-backed, and said it put the security of the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab and international shipping at risk.
The Houthis reject that characterisation. The group says it acts independently and describes its operations as a response to Saudi and Western action.
Al Zayani reaffirmed Bahrain’s commitment to relations and coordination with Yemen, according to the readout.
He emphasised the importance of joint Arab efforts on regional security and stability, Saba said.
The agency did not quote either man directly.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
The Security Council has passed resolutions on Yemen since 2011.
Bahrain holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. It presided over the council in April 2026.
Al Zayani has served as Bahrain’s foreign minister since 2020. He previously led the Gulf Cooperation Council as secretary-general.
The Gulf Cooperation Council groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Bawazir sits on the eight-member Presidential Leadership Council. He is not the body’s chairman, a post held by Rashad al-Alimi, whose surname he shares.
The council took power in April 2022, when Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his authority to it.
It was formed in Riyadh at Gulf-hosted consultations. Its members were drawn from the government, southern factions and military commands.
The internationally recognised government has operated from Aden since it lost Sanaa to the Houthis in September 2014.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015.
The New York talks came after three weeks of Houthi advances on Yemen’s western coast.
The group opened an offensive against the council on 3 September. The first clashes were in Taiz governorate.
The Houthis broke into al-Waziyah district on 9 September and took Jabal al-Nar, a mountain east of Mokha, along with the Khalid ibn al-Walid camp.
That camp is the second-largest military base in Yemen.
They captured the port city of Mokha on 10 September, Al Jazeera reported.
Mokha sits on the Red Sea coast in Taiz governorate.
Perim Island, which lies in the Bab al-Mandab strait, followed on 11 September.
The Hanish Islands were taken afterwards, leaving the Red Sea coast in Houthi hands apart from Midi district.
The Houthis named the campaign Operation God is Stronger in Might and More Severe in Punishment.
Bab al-Mandab links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Traffic between Europe and Asia passes through it on the way to the Suez Canal.
The Houthis later declared a blockade on shipping they associate with Saudi Arabia.
They said they attacked Riyadh and an Aramco facility at Yanbu. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at the Saudi capital.
The UN Security Council condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The European Union naval mission Aspides raised its alert level in the Red Sea this month.
The bloc launched Aspides in February 2024, after attacks on merchant shipping in the corridor. It escorts vessels through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Displacement has risen since the offensive began. UN agencies reported about 112,000 people displaced in two weeks of fighting.
A Yemeni government unit put the figure at close to 147,000 over 18 days.
The UN refugee agency allocated 2 million dollars for the latest wave.
More than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance, according to the UN humanitarian office’s March 2026 response plan.
That plan recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure.
It counted more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
It listed 5.2 million internally displaced people, a count that predates the September fighting.
The plan sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
The World Health Organization has said nearly 20 million people in Yemen need health assistance.
The Central Bank of Yemen has been split since it moved its headquarters from Sanaa to Aden in September 2016. Two versions of the same currency circulate, one printed in Aden and one accepted in Houthi-held areas.
Bahrain joined the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in 2015.
Yemen’s war has run for more than a decade. UN-brokered efforts to convert a 2022 truce into a wider settlement have not produced a signed agreement.
Saba did not report any new agreement between the two governments. It gave no date for further contacts.
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