UN Security Council urges implementation of arms embargo against Yemen's Houthis

Armed tribesmen participate in an anti-Israel gathering mobilising more fighters, in Sanaa. EPA

Yemen’s Houthi rebels must stop their cross-border and maritime attacks, the UN Security Council said late on Friday, as member states were pushed to implement an arms embargo against them.

A resolution calling for the renewal of sanctions against the group was adopted in a 13-0 vote, with permanent members China and Russia abstaining.

In the text, the council condemned the attacks and demanded an end to all such actions, "including those against infrastructure and civilian targets".

The Iran-backed rebels began a campaign of attacks on ships in the Red Sea a month after the start of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023, in what they called a show of solidarity with the Palestinian enclave. The war was triggered by an attack on southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The council's session resulted in the extension of targeted sanctions until November 14, 2026. This includes the freezing of assets and travel bans in place against about 10 people, most of them high-ranking Houthi officials and the group as a whole.

According to the text, the sanctions could now affect those who launch cross-border attacks from Yemeni territory using ballistic and cruise missile technology, or attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.

Member states were asked to "increase efforts to combat the smuggling of weapons and components via land and sea routes, to ensure implementation of the targeted arms embargo".

The rebels have frequently launched attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea.

The UN text called on the panel of experts tasked with monitoring the application of the embargo to present a report to the council by mid-April with recommendations on the sale and transfer to Yemen of "dual-use components and precursor chemicals" that could fall into Houthi hands.

Council members also want the report to offer advice on improving information sharing on vessels suspected of carrying arms in violation of existing sanctions.

But several member states, notably the United States and France, lamented that the council had not gone farther.

"We regret that the text adopted was not more ambitious and does not reflect the deterioration of the situation in Yemen over the past year," said France's deputy envoy Jay Dharmadhikari.

The rebels have controlled large swathes of Yemen since they seized the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014.