UN Security Council adopts draft resolution extending Yemen sanctions for another year

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a draft resolution renewing sanctions against Yemen for another 12 months.

The draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom was adopted with 13 votes in favor, none against and abstentions from Russia and China.

The sanctions package includes targeted financial and travel ban measures aimed at pushing Iran-backed Houthi rebels to engage in Yemen’s political process. It also calls for the UN’s panel of experts to monitor dual-use components and precursor chemicals that can be used to produce weapons.

“We welcome council members' support in ensuring that the sanctions regime evolved to reflect the increasing complexity and scale of Houthi smuggling and financing,” said James Kariuki, Chargé d’Affaires at the UK Mission to the UN, after the vote passed.

Maritime interdictions

China said it abstained due to to what it called “arbitrary” maritime interdictions that would require UN member states to inspect vessels in the Red Sea and nearby waters.

Russia called the text of the resolution “unbalanced” and “politicised.”

Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and taken dozens of workers at UN agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence that they were spies — something strongly denied by the UN and others.

Yemen’s civil war has been raging since 2014 when Houthi rebels seized the country’s capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia launched a military intervention the following year backing the Yemeni government. A 2022 truce lasted just six months before fighting resumed.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and 4.5 million people displaced.