Yemen’s foreign ministry asks Security Council to take a firm position on Houthi escalation
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s foreign ministry asked the UN Security Council on Thursday to take a firm position against Houthi military escalation on the Red Sea coast.
The ministry said in a statement that the escalation threatened the security and stability of Yemen, the wider region and international navigation in the Red Sea.
It called for urgent international action.
The ministry said continued Houthi military activity posed a growing threat to regional peace and to maritime security.
It urged the Council to uphold its responsibilities for international peace and security and to adopt measures that would deter further escalation.
The statement said the government views the Houthi advance as a challenge to efforts to reach a comprehensive political settlement.
The account of the appeal rests on the ministry’s own statement, distributed by the state news agency Saba. No independent confirmation of the statement has been published, and Yemen Herald could not verify it.
The ministry did not say whether it had circulated the appeal as a formal letter to Council members.
The Council met in emergency session on Yemen this week after Houthi forces captured the port city of Mocha.
Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the Council the war had entered a new and more dangerous phase.
Grundberg said the truce that has framed the conflict for four years was collapsing.
He reported civilian deaths in Taiz, Hodeidah, al-Bayda and al-Jawf provinces, and said children were among those killed.
He said shelling had destroyed shelters for displaced people in Marib.
Grundberg said more than 11,400 families had been displaced across Yemen since Sept. 3.
Houthi forces opened the offensive along the Red Sea coast on that date.
Government units withdrew from Mocha, in Taiz province, rather than hold it, Yemeni officials told AFP and Reuters.
Houthi fighters then reached Mayyun Island, also known as Perim, in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Two Yemeni officials said government forces had pulled out.
The strait carries traffic between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador told the Council that Houthi strikes on the kingdom on Sept. 8 had wounded 73 civilians.
He described the strikes as part of a wider escalation that threatened the region and international shipping.
The United States told the Council that Tehran was enabling the Houthis. It demanded an immediate end to the attacks.
Washington also called for the unconditional release of detained UN, humanitarian and diplomatic personnel.
Iran denies directing the group. Its foreign ministry says the Houthis act independently.
The Houthi movement said its strikes on Saudi Arabia answered more than 120 Saudi air raids carried out over three days.
The Houthi movement says it has taken six districts in Taiz and Hodeidah provinces. The government disputes the extent of those gains, and Arab News reported that its forces had pushed back in parts of both.
Government forces said they had retaken Hays district in Hodeidah and advanced in western Taiz.
The International Organization for Migration said at least 46,000 people had fled fighting in southwestern Yemen.
The UN humanitarian plan for this year counts more than 22 million people in need across Yemen.
It records 18.3 million people who are acutely food insecure and more than 2.2 million children under five who are acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.
The plan lists 5.2 million internally displaced people and asks for 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
A truce mediated by the United Nations took effect in April 2022. Each side accuses the other of ending it.
Yemen’s government moved its seat to Aden after the Houthis took Sanaa in 2014.
The appeal came the same day the Council took up Yemen.
Bahrain and the United Kingdom, which holds the pen on Yemen at the Council, requested the meeting, according to Security Council Report.
Yemen and Saudi Arabia took part under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure. The rule lets states that are not members join a discussion affecting them.
The session was the Council’s 10219th meeting.
The Council heard that four years of relative calm in Yemen had ended.
The Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on several locations in southern Saudi Arabia on Sept. 8. The group said it had targeted oil and economic facilities and a military air base.
Mocha lies about 75 kilometres from Bab al-Mandab. Grundberg said the capture gave the group a presence on the approaches to the strait.
Yemen’s government has held Mocha since 2017, when forces on the west coast took it from the Houthis.
Grundberg called on the parties to halt hostilities and exercise restraint. He warned that the escalation could spiral into full-scale war.
The Red Sea corridor carries traffic bound for the Suez Canal. Volumes fell after Houthi attacks on merchant vessels began in late 2023.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, run by the Royal Navy, has continued to log reports of approaches to ships off Yemen’s coast.
The foreign ministry issued its statement from Aden, where the government sits.
Grundberg has led UN mediation on Yemen since 2021. His office is based in Amman.
The ministry statement named no Council member and set no deadline.
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