Presidential Leadership Council member Bawazir raises Bab al-Mandab escalation with the EU’s Kaja Kallas
Yemen Herald News 
NEW YORK, United States — A member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council pressed the European Union’s foreign policy chief on Houthi movements toward Bab al-Mandab, the state news agency said.
Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazir met Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Saba, Yemen’s state news agency, reported the meeting. It said the two discussed developments in Yemen and the wider region, maritime security and the protection of international navigation.
Bawazir warned of what he described as recent Houthi military escalation and movements toward the strait, according to Saba.
He said continued Iranian military support to the Houthis threatens Yemen’s stability and the security of the Red Sea and international trade. Iran denies arming the group. The Houthis deny receiving Iranian weapons.
Bawazir called for stronger implementation of the arms embargo and sanctions imposed under Security Council Resolutions 2140 and 2216, Saba said.
Resolution 2140 was adopted in 2014. It created the Yemen sanctions regime and the panel of experts that reports to the Security Council.
Resolution 2216 followed in 2015. It imposed a targeted arms embargo on Houthi leaders and on forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
He also said securing the Red Sea requires strengthening Yemen’s own military, security and coast guard capabilities.
Bawazir praised EU support for the Yemeni government, Saba said. He asked for continued assistance to address economic and humanitarian pressures and to strengthen state institutions.
The account of the meeting rests on Saba, which reports the Presidential Leadership Council’s activities. No independent confirmation of the discussion has been published, and the European Union has issued no readout of its own.
Kallas has held the post since December 2024. She is also a vice-president of the European Commission.
She said on 20 September that Aspides, the EU naval mission in the Red Sea, had raised its alert level.
Aspides began operating in February 2024. Its mandate covers the protection of merchant shipping in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the north-western Indian Ocean.
The bloc’s mission in Yemen signed three projects worth 24 million euros for the country’s farming and fishing sectors this month.
Yemen’s interior minister, Ibrahim Haidan, discussed coast guard support with the EU and Dutch ambassadors in Aden this week.
Bawazir arrived in New York for the assembly’s high-level week, Yemen Monitor reported.
He has used the visit to seek political, economic and humanitarian backing for the government.
He met Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee. A readout from the committee’s Democratic staff said they discussed how Congress could support Yemen’s government against the Houthis, including security and humanitarian assistance.
He held talks with Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Those covered Yemen’s economic position and the government’s reform programme.
He also met Abdullatif Al Zayani, Bahrain’s foreign minister, in the city.
Yemen’s foreign minister, Afrah al-Zouba, called for disarming the Houthis at a UN ministerial dialogue during the same week.
Yemen’s national commission of inquiry briefed 23 ambassadors on its 14th periodic report this month.
The meetings follow a change on Yemen’s western coast. Houthi forces took control of the Red Sea coastline in early September, Al Jazeera reported on 11 September.
The advance gave the group the port city of Mokha, Perim Island and the Hanish Islands.
It placed Houthi forces astride Bab al-Mandab, the strait between Yemen and the Horn of Africa through which shipping passes from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea.
The group then declared a blockade on Saudi-linked shipping.
The UN Security Council condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and urged a halt to the escalation.
The Group of Seven foreign ministers issued their own condemnation this week and urged Iran to stop arming the group.
Arab foreign ministers meeting in New York said the advance threatens shipping through the strait.
The UN refugee agency said this week that nearly 100,000 more Yemenis could be displaced within three months.
A Yemeni government unit recorded nearly 147,000 people displaced in 18 days. UN agencies put the figure at 112,000 over two weeks of fighting.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its March 2026 plan that more than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance.
It put the number of acutely food insecure at 18.3 million and recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people.
The office asked for 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people this year.
Aid agencies reached 10.83 million people in Yemen between January and July, according to the office.
The Presidential Leadership Council was formed in April 2022, when it took over the powers of the presidency from Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Rashad al-Alimi chairs the body. Bawazir is a separate member of it and shares part of a name with the chairman.
The council governs from Aden. The Houthis have held Sanaa since September 2014.
Yemen’s foreign ministry welcomed three statements on Bab al-Mandab and the Houthis issued during the assembly.
The strait is one of the main shipping routes between Europe and Asia.
Saba did not say whether Kallas made any commitment at the meeting. It gave no account of her remarks.
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