The UN Security Council on Friday condemned the seizure of an Emirati ship and demanded that Yemen’s Houthi rebels immediately release the vessel and its crew.
A news statement from the UN’s most powerful body called on all sides “to resolve the issue quickly and underlined the importance of freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, in accordance with international law.”
The seizure of the Emirati-flagged Rwabee on Monday last week by the Iranian-backed rebels coincided with a massive memorial in Tehran on the second anniversary of a US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Photo: AFP
The Houthis said they seized the ship off the coast of Hodeida, Yemen’s main port, because it was carrying military equipment.
The Security Council “underscored the necessity of ensuring the crew’s safety and well-being until their release.”
On Thursday, the UN mission monitoring implementation of a ceasefire and the withdrawal of rival forces from Hodeida and the two smaller ports of Salif and Ras Issa wrote on Twitter that as part of its routine weekly patrol, it visited the port of Salif and neighboring areas where its team “saw the Rwabee vessel from a distance and spoke to its crew members.”
It gave no further details.
The taking of the Rwabee marked the latest assault in the Red Sea, a crucial route for international trade.
Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since 2014 when the Houthis took the capital, Sana’a, and much of the northern part of the country, forcing the Yemeni government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led coalition that included the United Arab Emirates and was backed at the time by the US, entered the war months later, in 2015, seeking to restore the government to power.
The conflict has since become a proxy war that has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
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