Presidential Leadership Council member Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazir briefs Gregory Meeks on Houthi escalation

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NEW YORK, United States — A member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council asked a senior US lawmaker for continued American support against the Houthis.

Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazir met Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Monday, the state news agency Saba reported.

The two discussed relations between the two countries, with the Houthi escalation the main subject, the agency said.

Bawazir set out recent political developments in Yemen and the fighting on the western coast.

He said Iran had armed the Houthis and supplied them with advanced military capabilities, and that this threatened security in Yemen, the region, the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

Iran denies arming the group.

Bawazir pressed for closer cooperation on counter-terrorism and on smuggling, and for cutting off funding and arms networks reaching the Houthis.

He asked for support for the Yemeni armed forces, the security agencies and the coast guard.

The account of the meeting rests on Saba, which is run by the internationally recognised government. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of what was said.

Meeks’s office has not published a readout.

Meeks has been the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee since January 2023. He represents a New York district.

The committee has jurisdiction over foreign assistance, arms transfers and State Department oversight in the House of Representatives.

Yemen’s government has sought US help on maritime security and on restricting weapons reaching the Houthis since the Red Sea attacks began.

Bawazir has sat on the Presidential Leadership Council since it was formed in April 2022.

He was director of the office of former president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi from 2016, and is a member of the Islah party.

He was born in Bayhan, in Shabwa governorate, in 1979.

He represents the southern governorates on the eight-member council, which is chaired by Rashad al-Alimi.

He is heading Yemen’s delegation to the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, Saba reported.

The council took over executive authority in April 2022, when Hadi transferred his powers to it. Its seat is in Aden.

The meeting followed a month of Houthi gains on Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Al Jazeera reported on 11 September that the group had taken control of the coastline and the shipping lane beside it.

Houthi fighters seized the port city of Mokha, then moved onto Perim Island, also called Mayyun, which divides the Bab al-Mandab strait into two shipping lanes, Euronews reported on 12 September.

Government forces withdrew from the island. Houthi units also took the Hanish Islands in the middle of the Red Sea.

The positions leave the group about 20 kilometres from the African coast, according to Al Jazeera.

Bab al-Mandab links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and carries traffic bound for the Suez Canal.

The Houthis dispute the government’s account of the fighting and describe their forces as a national army.

The Group of Seven foreign ministers and the European Union’s High Representative issued a joint statement this month on the strait.

They said the situation in Yemen was an unacceptable threat to regional stability, to global energy security, and to navigational rights and maritime security in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

The statement condemned Houthi strikes in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia, including those affecting civilians and civilian infrastructure.

It called on Iran to end its arming of and support for the group, citing Security Council resolutions 1747, 2140 and 2216.

The ministers restated their backing for Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen.

The Security Council condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia this month. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Jasem Albudaiwi, the Gulf Cooperation Council’s secretary-general, issued their own condemnations.

The Houthis said they struck sites in Riyadh and an Aramco installation at Yanbu with ballistic missiles and drones.

Video shared afterwards showed smoke near King Khalid International Airport. Saudi Arabia has not published a full account of the damage.

President Donald Trump reviewed options for strikes on Yemen at Camp David on Sunday, then cut his weekend short and returned to Washington, The National reported.

He called off a prepared strike package by the middle of the day. Washington has twice declined Saudi requests for direct military action, according to the same report.

The State Department warned Americans in the region of the potential for unforeseen escalation and said the conflict could escalate rapidly.

The fighting has driven a fresh wave of displacement.

The International Organization for Migration said 18,500 people were displaced in 72 hours as fighting spread across the west coast earlier this month.

UN agencies counted 112,000 displaced in the first two weeks. A government displacement unit later put the figure at nearly 147,000.

The United Nations humanitarian needs and response plan published in March said more than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance, and put the number who are acutely food insecure at 18.3 million.

It recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people, and aid agencies sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of those in need.

Yemen’s war began in 2014, when Houthi forces took the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following March.

Bawazir held separate talks in New York with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Saba reported.