2024-01-11T05:19:10+00:00
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/ Today, Thursday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling on the “Ansar Allah” group (Houthis) to immediately stop their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
The Security Council resolution strongly condemned the Ansar Allah attacks on commercial ships, which occurred starting on November 19, 2023, when the Houthis attacked and detained the Galaxy Leader ship and its crew. In addition, the Security Council demanded that Ansar Allah stop immediately. For all similar attacks that disrupt global trade, harm navigational rights and freedoms, and threaten regional peace and security.
The Security Council also demanded that the Houthis immediately release the Galaxy Leader ship and its crew, and affirmed the right of member states to protect their ships, in accordance with international law, from attacks, including those that harm the rights and freedoms of navigation.
11 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while four countries abstained from voting: Russia, China, Algeria, and Mozambique.
The UN Security Council rejected the amendments proposed by the Russian mission to the “US-Japanese” draft resolution, which calls on the Houthis to immediately stop their attacks on ships.
Russia proposed three amendments to the text. In particular, Moscow proposed adding a clause stating that all provisions of this resolution should not become a precedent or establish new rules of international law.
In addition, Russia proposed replacing the premise that the UN Security Council “takes note of the right of Member States to protect their ships, guided by the rules of international law, from attacks, including those prejudicial to the rights and freedoms of navigation,” with a provision stating that the Council UN Security “takes note in this regard of the applicable rights of Member States in accordance with international law.”
The third amendment proposes adding a reference to the conflict in the Gaza Strip to paragraph 7. Moscow wanted to say that the UN Security Council emphasizes the need to address root causes, including conflicts that contribute to regional tensions, “particularly the conflict in the Gaza Strip.”
Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said that the United States seeks, through this resolution, to legislate the coalition’s actions in the Red Sea.
Last Sunday, the Yemeni “Ansar Allah” group announced the continuation of its operations to prevent ships linked to Israel or heading to its ports from passing through the Red Sea, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, stressing that America’s militarization of the Red Sea will not prevent it from doing so.
Tensions escalated in the Red Sea, after Ansar Allah announced the killing of 10 of its forces as a result of an American bombing that targeted three of its boats, blaming Washington for the consequences.
At that time, US Central Command said that US Navy helicopters sank three boats belonging to the Ansar Allah group, and their crew were killed while they attacked the container ship (Maersk Hangzhou) off the coast of Yemen, south of the Red Sea.
Last Thursday, the leader of the Ansar Allah group, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, responded to the American bombing by saying, “The targeting of naval boats in the Red Sea will not remain without response and punishment.”
Since the beginning of last December, Ansar Allah has claimed responsibility for targeting 11 ships in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, with missiles and drones, while implementing its decision to prevent Israeli ships or those heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea, in response to the Israeli army’s operations against the resistance. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
From time to time, the Ansar Allah group declares that it is part of the resistance axis that includes Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Palestinian resistance factions, confirming its readiness to participate in the fighting alongside the Palestinian resistance.
Since September 2014, the “Ansar Allah” group has controlled the majority of the governorates in central and northern Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a, while on March 26, 2015, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations in support of the Yemeni army to reclaim those areas from the group’s control.