UN Security Council demands Houthis stop Red Sea attacks

FILE PHOTO: Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released November 20, 2023. Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday demanded Yemen’s Houthis immediately end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and cautioned against escalating tensions while implicitly endorsing a US-led task force that has been defending vessels.

The demand came in a UNSC resolution that also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on November 19, and its 25-person crew.

Eleven members voted for the measure demanding the Houthis “immediately cease all attacks, which impede global commerce and navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace.”

Four members, including veto-wielding Russia and China, abstained. None voted against it.

READ: UN Security Council members call for Houthis to stop attacks on shipping

The key provision of the resolution, sponsored by the US and Japan, noted the right of UN member states, under international law, “to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms.”

The provision amounted to an implicit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led multinational naval task force that has been defending commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from Houthi missile and drone attacks.

“The threat to navigational rights and freedoms in the Red Sea is a global challenge that necessitates a global response,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in urging the council to approve the resolution.

READ: Houthis continue Red Sea attacks amid trade traffic surge

The Houthis, an Iran-aligned group that seized much of Yemen in a civil war, have vowed to attack ships linked to Israel or bound for Israeli ports to show support for Hamas Islamists battling the Israeli offensive in Gaza. However, many of the targeted ships have had no links to Israel.

The US accuses Iran of providing critical support for the Houthi attacks, including advanced missiles and drones, in violation of UNSC resolutions. Tehran denies the allegation.

The Houthi spokesman in Yemen, Mohammed Abdul Salam, dismissed the UN resolution as a “political game” and said the US was the one violating international law.

The council voted after rejecting amendments proposed by Russia that would have stripped out the implicit endorsement of the US-led task force and included the war in Gaza among the “root causes” of the Houthi strikes.

READ: How are Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea affecting global trade?

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia questioned the task force’s legitimacy and said the drafted resolution was “an open-ended blessing of it.”

The Houthi attacks have disrupted maritime commerce, prompting some shipping lines to divert vessels from the Red Sea to longer routes, threatening to increase energy and food prices.

In the latest strikes, Washington said US and British warships on Tuesday shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by the Houthis at southern Red Sea shipping lanes in what London called the largest such attack in the area.

The US Central Command said there have been 26 Houthi strikes on shipping since the Houthis seized the Galaxy Leader.