The UN security council has called for an immediate end to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, adopting a resolution despite abstentions from Russia and China.
The resolution also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on 19 November, along with its 25 crew.
US Central Command said there have been 26 Houthi strikes on shipping since then, causing shipping companies to bypass the route and instead divert around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, significantly adding to journey times and cost.
On Wednesday, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said further attacks could prompt a western military response. He was speaking after US and British warships on Tuesday shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by the Houthis, in what London called the largest such attack in the area.
British defence secretary Grant Shapps said the UK, its western allies and Saudi Arabia were “all agreed” that the series of attacks on warships and merchant shipping in the southern Red Sea “cannot continue” and did not rule out striking Houthi military targets on land.
The Houthis, an Iran-aligned group that seized much of Yemen in a civil war, have vowed to attack ships linked to Israel or bound for Israeli ports to show support for Hamas in its war in Gaza. However, many of the targeted ships have had no links to Israel.
On Thursday, Israel was set to face the international court of justice to defend itself against accusations of genocide in Gaza. The initial hearings will focus on requests from South Africa – which brought the case – for emergency measures ordering Israel to suspend its military actions in Gaza while the court hears the merits of the case, a process which could take years.
A key provision of Wednesday’s security council resolution – which was sponsored by the US and Japan – noted the right of UN member states, in accordance with international law, “to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms”.
The provision amounted to an implicit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led multinational naval taskforce that has been defending commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from Houthi missile and drone attacks.
A Houthi spokesperson in Yemen dismissed the resolution as a “political game” and said the US was the one violating international law.
The council’s adoption of the resolution came after it rejected amendments proposed by Russia that would have stripped out the implicit endorsement of the US-led taskforce and included the war in Gaza among the “root causes” of the Houthi strikes.
Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia questioned the legitimacy of the taskforce and said the resolution as drafted was “an open-ended blessing of it”.
Despite possessing a veto power in the security council, Russia and China both chose to abstain from the vote, along with Mozambique and Algeria.
The resolution, noting the “large-scale” violations of an arms embargo against the Houthis, also reiterates the need for all member states to “adhere to their obligations” and “condemns the provision of arms” to the Houthis.
Washington’s UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said: “Iran has long encouraged the Houthi’s destabilising actions in the region through both financial and materiel support.”
The UN earlier said it continued “to be very concerned about the situation in the Red Sea, not only because of the situation itself, and the risks that it causes to global trade”.
A report this week from Windward, a Maritime analysis company, showed that since the Houthis began their attacks on the Red Sea, the number of passages through the vital shipping lane has dropped considerably.
In the second week of December, there was a 70% decrease in container vessels passing through the southern entrance to the Red Sea – the Bab-Al Mandeb strait – compared to the 2023 weekly average. At the same time, there was a 136% increase of voyages through the Cape of Good Hope.
Analysts and government officials have warned that the continued disruption to maritime commerce could lead to increased energy and food prices.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
