Yemen seeks UN action against militia

GCC denounces attack on Saudi oil tanker; coalition hits Al Houthi posts in Hodeida |

The Saudi-led coalition launched heavy air strikes on Yemen’s main port city of Hodeida on Friday, in an apparent resumption of military operations on the Red Sea city after the Iranian-aligned Al Houthi militia attacked two Saudi oil tankers. Residents said coalition warplanes had begun their bombardment after midnight, attacking an Al Houthi military police camp in the city centre, and the districts of Zubaid and Al Tahita to the south. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Yemeni government has said it will seek a UN action against Iran-allied Al Houthis over their threats to international navigation in the Red Sea.

Complaint to UN

Yemeni Foreign Minister Khalid Al Yamani said that his country will move in coordination with Kuwait, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, to file a complaint to the council about Al Houthis’ attacks on commercial vessels. “We will ask the council to move swiftly to stop these blatant violations against the international navigation law,” Al Yamani told pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has strongly denounced Wednesday’s attack on the Saudi tankers, calling it a “heinous” act. “The attack is an act of terrorism that has threatened the regional security and peace,” Abdul Latif Al Zayani, the GCC Secretary General, said in a statement.

Al Zayani called on the UN Security Council to practise its “legal and political responsibility” to stop Al Houthis’ flagrant violation of the international laws, jeopardising the freedom of navigation in Bab Al Mandeb and the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia, which leads an Arab coalition fighting Al Houthis in Yemen, temporarily halted its oil shipments through the Bab Al Mandab Strait, which links the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.

The attack coincided with a visit by UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to Al Houthioccupied capital Sana’a as part of his efforts to revive peace talks between the country’s warring sides.

“There can be no talk about peace before the complete and unconditional exit of the coup plotters [Al Houthis] from the western coast,” Al Yamani said.

Last month, the Arab coalition unleashed a massive offensive aimed at driving Al Houthis out of the Red Sea city of Hodeida. The campaign, the biggest in Yemen’s three-year-old war, has been suspended in support of UN efforts to avert an all-out battle in the city of around 600,000 people.