The US is calling on Iran to stop “unprecedented” arms sales to the Houthis in Yemen for attacks on ships

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States called on Iran on Monday to stop transferring an “unprecedented” amount of weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels so that its fighters could carry out “ruthless attacks” on ships in the Red Sea and elsewhere .

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told the U.N. Security Council that if the country wants to make progress toward ending Yemen’s civil war, it must act together to “confront Iran for its destabilizing role and insist that “It cannot hide behind the Houthis.”

He said there was ample evidence that Iran was providing the Houthis with advanced weapons, including ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, in violation of U.N. sanctions.

“To underscore the Council’s concerns about ongoing arms embargo violations, we must do more to strengthen enforcement and deter sanctions violators,” Wood said.

The Houthis say their attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war with Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have carried out more than 50 attacks on ships since November, hijacking one ship and sinking another, the U.S. Maritime Administration said late last month.

Houthi attacks have declined in recent weeks as Yemen’s rebels have become the target of a U.S.-led airstrikes campaign. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined due to the threat.

But Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, warned the council that “hostilities continue” despite a decline in attacks on merchant and military vessels in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, as well as a decline have in the number of US and British air strikes on targets in Yemen.

He referred to an announcement by the Houthis that they would “increase the scale of attacks,” calling it “a worrying provocation in an already fragile situation.”

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia told the council that Israel’s announcement on May 6 that it would begin its military operation in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where 1.2 million Palestinians had sought shelter, added to the spiral of escalation in the region stage further accelerated”. ”

“There is no doubt that this will have an impact on the situation in Yemen’s surrounding waters,” he said, citing the Houthis’ resistance to Israeli attacks that harm Palestinian civilians.

However, Nebenzia added: “We call for a rapid cessation of the shelling of merchant ships and all other measures that hinder maritime navigation.”

He sharply criticized the United States and its Western allies, saying their “totally unjustified attacks” in Yemen violated the U.N. charter. He said they were making an already complex situation even more complicated and would not improve the situation in the Red Sea.

The war between the Houthis and pro-government forces in Yemen, backed by a coalition of Arab Gulf states, has been raging since 2014. The Houthis swooped down from the mountains, captured large swaths of northern Yemen and the country’s capital, Sanaa, and forced the international recognized government government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. Since then, more than 150,000 people have been killed and 3 million displaced by the violence.

Fighting in Yemen has decreased significantly since a ceasefire in April 2022, but there are still trouble spots in the country

Grundberg recalled that in December the Houthis and the government “took a bold step towards a peaceful solution” by agreeing to a series of commitments that would provide for a nationwide ceasefire, ensure urgently needed humanitarian assistance and a political one would initiate the process to end the conflict.

But UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths reported “alarmingly high” levels of severe food shortages across the country, which are expected to worsen during the lean harvest season starting in June.

Griffiths also expressed serious concern about a rapidly worsening cholera outbreak. He cited reports of 40,000 suspected cholera cases and over 160 deaths — “a sharp increase” since last month, most of them in Houthi-controlled areas “where hundreds of new cases are reported every day.”