HOUTHIS REJECT UN RESOLUTION AND VOW ‘RESPONSE’
▶ Yemeni rebel group’s leader calls decision a ‘political game’ and accuses the US of breaking international law
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have warned against any US attack, as tension grows in the Red Sea after the UN adopted a resolution condemning assaults on commercial ships by the Iranbacked group.
The group’s leader Abdel Malek Al Houthi said any US strike would draw a “bigger” response than this week’s missile and drone attack on US forces in the vital waterway.
The Houthis will fight any direct confrontation, he added.
Earlier on Thursday, the head of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Al Houthi, rejected a UN resolution that condemned about 30 attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
He called Wednesday’s resolution a “political game” and said the US was the country breaking international law.
The UN Security Council demanded an immediate halt to the Houthi raids on commercial vessels.
Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel Institute) said in a report released on Thursday the attacks had so far led to a 1.3 per cent decline in global trade.
The resolution condemned “in the strongest terms” raids in the Red Sea since November 19, “when the Houthis attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew”, referring to a Japanese-owned, Israel-linked ship with a multinational crew.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam condemned the Security Council and wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Resolution 2722 represents a historic disgrace for an international council concerned, as it claims, with protecting international peace and security.
“We know that the world is governed by the law of the jungle, but after Resolution 2722, the UN Security Council is enshrining the law of the jungle and calling it international legitimacy, ignoring humanitarian laws,” he said.
He said the Houthis posed no threat to international navigation in the Red Sea and the resolution was the result of “American deception and well-known western lies”.
“The UN Security Council must restore its primary function of protecting oppressed peoples,” rather than remain “a platform for America and its destructive projects”, he said.
In a separate post, Mr Al Houthi said on X that what he called the “Yemeni armed forces” were acting “within the framework of legitimate defence and that any action they face will have a reaction”.
“We call on the Security Council to immediately release 2.3 million people from the Israeli-American siege in Gaza,” he said.
The White House said attacks by Houthi militants are “escalatory” and that the US will consult with its partners about the next steps if these continue.
Mr Al Houthi’s remarks put the group on a potential collision course with the US and allies who are part of a naval task force conducting Operation Prosperity Guardian, formed on December 18 to protect shipping from the Houthis.
On Wednesday, the Houthis launched 18 drones and four missiles at US forces in the Red Sea, all of which were shot down by the US ships and supporting aircraft, as well as a British warship.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Houthi attacks could not continue or “there will be consequences”, hinting at a possible US direct attack on Houthi targets in Yemen, which happened briefly in 2016 after a Houthi attack on a US warship.
The West has blamed Iran for funding and arming the Houthis, as well as encouraging their actions.
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council on Wednesday that “Iran also has a choice: to continue providing or withhold its support for the Houthis, without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track and strike vessels through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden”.
The Red Sea carries about 12 per cent of global trade with an estimated value of $1 trillion a year.
About 20,000 ships cross the sea annually, carrying 500,000 containers of goods each day. That figure is down to about 200,000, the IfW Kiel Institute said, as the number of ships passing through the waterway has dropped sharply since the Houthis began attacks on what they claimed were ships with links to Israel.
In many cases, the vessels had no connection to Israel and the effect on shipping has been immediate.
In December, US forces took the first direct action against the Houthis since 2016, destroying three of their boats that attacked the Maersk Hangzhou, after the boats also fired on a US helicopter.
The US said attacks by Houthi militants are ‘escalatory’ and it will consult with its partners about the next steps