The United States called on the UN Security Council Wednesday to take urgent action against Yemen's Houthi rebels for attacking ships in the key Red Sea trade route and warned their longtime financier Iran that it has a choice to make about continuing to provide support to the rebels.
U.S. deputy ambassador Christopher Lu told an emergency council meeting that the Houthis have carried out more than 20 attacks since Nov. 19 -- and despite losing 10 fighters in a confrontation with U.S. forces after trying unsuccessfully to board a cargo ship on Sunday, the rebel group announced Wednesday morning they had targeted another container ship.
The Houthis, who have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen's internationally recognized government since 2014, have said they launched the attacks on ships in the Red Sea with the aim of ending Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel.
International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told the council that as a result of the Houthi attacks, around 18 shipping companies have rerouted their vessels around South Africa to avoid the risk of being hit.
Some 15 per cent of international trade goes through the vital Red Sea area, he said, and rerouting ships around the Cape of Good Hope represents an additional 10-day journey, negatively impacts global trade, and increases freight rates.
U.S. envoy Lu stressed to the council that the Houthis have been able to carry out the attacks because Iran has supplied them with money and advanced weapons systems including drones, land attack cruise missiles and ballistic missiles -- in violation of UN sanctions.
"We also know that Iran has been deeply involved in planning operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea," Lu said.
He said the United States isn't seeking a confrontation with Iran but Tehran has a choice.
"It can continue its current course," Lu said, "or it can withhold its support without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track and strike commercial vessels navigating shipping lanes through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."
After the U.S. Navy sank three Houthi boats on Sunday with the loss of 10 of its fighters, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council wouldn't say what further actions the Biden administration was considering.
John Kirby told ABC's "Good Morning America" the United States has made it clear to the Houthis that "we take these threats seriously and we're going to make the right decisions going forward."
Lu, the U.S. deputy ambassador, said the Houthi attacks "pose grave implications for maritime security, international shipping and commerce" and it's vital that the Security Council speak out now on the need to uphold international law and the right to freedom of navigation.
There was near unanimous condemnation of the Houthi attacks in speeches Wednesday by the 15 council members, and many calls for the rebel group to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship with links to an Israeli company that it seized on Nov. 19 along with its crew.
A statement issued later by the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom called for the immediate end of Houthi attacks and warned that further attacks would require collective action.
"The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region's critical waterways," the 12 countries said.
On Dec. 1, the Security Council issued a press statement condemning and demanding an immediate halt to Houthi attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea "in the strongest terms." It also called for the immediate release of the Galaxy Leader and underlined the importance of freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called on Houthi leaders to implement that statement and halt attacks, but he stressed that they must be seen as a response to the violence in Gaza "where Israel's brutal operation has continued for three months now," leading to escalating attacks in the West Bank and along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Russia sees two scenarios for the current Red Sea situation, he said.
The favorable one would be for the Security Council to redouble efforts to end the Yemen civil war and the violence in Gaza, Nebenzia said.
The "catastrophic" scenario is to escalate the use of force in the Red Sea -- which he said the U.S. and its allies are calling on the council to do -- which risks derailing a settlement of the Yemen conflict and would create conditions "for igniting a new major conflict around at least the Arabian Peninsula" and a wider regional conflict.
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