The United Arab Emirates has welcomed the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia, and labeling them a terrorist group for the first time.
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“The purpose of this resolution is to limit the capacity of the Houthis and to limit the escalation of war in Yemen,” Lana Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative of the UAE to the UN said in a statement.
“It also calls for an end to attacks on international navigational waters and vessels and to put an end to the suffering of civilians in Yemen and in the region in the face of these terrorist attacks,” she added.
The UN Security Council voted Monday to extend to all of Yemen’s Houthis an arms embargo that until now targeted only some leaders of the Iran-backed militia.
Yemen has been embroiled since 2014 in a civil war between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government.
An Arab Coalition including the UAE and Saudi Arabia intervened in support of the government in 2015.
The Houthis have launched regular strikes on Saudi Arabia since its intervention, and in January staged unprecedented attacks on the UAE, killing three foreign nationals.
The UAE has been calling for the US to relist the Houthis as a terrorist group, after President Joe Biden’s administration reversed a Trump-era decision to designate them as terrorists.
President Biden said at a Wednesday, January 19 news conference that re-listing the Houthis as terrorists was “under consideration.”
With agencies
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