The United Nations Security Council on Monday imposed an arms embargo on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis after the group claimed several drone and missile assaults on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia this year.The measure, proposed by the UAE, expands a targeted U.N. arms embargo on several Houthi leaders to the whole group. It received 11 votes in favour, while the remaining four council members – Ireland, Mexico, Brazil and Norway – abstained.
The UAE mission to the United Nations said the resolution would curtail the Houthis’ military capabilities and “push toward stopping their escalation in Yemen & the region”.A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis for seven years in a conflict largely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The war has killed tens of thousands of people and caused a dire humanitarian crisis.The coalition, the United States and U.N. sanctions monitors have accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with arms, which both Tehran and the group deny.
Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, criticised the decision for ignoring “crimes” by the coalition and said in a Twitter post that any arms embargo that does not apply to the Western-backed alliance “had no value”.The war has seen a major escalation this year with coalition warplanes strafing Houthi-held areas after the group ramped up cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and extended them to the UAE, where three people were killed in a strike in January.
This story was originally published by Reuters.
