OMM Redaksiyası
Protecting the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a shared regional and international responsibility and should not be borne by Yemen alone, Presidential Leadership Council Vice President Abdullah al-Alimi said on Thursday.
Speaking at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, al-Alimi said Houthi attacks on maritime navigation had turned the security of one of the world’s most important shipping routes into a tool of pressure and bargaining, according to the source report.
“The Houthi use of maritime security as a tool of blackmail is not only a threat to Yemen, but is holding the global economy hostage,” he said.
Yemen calls for international partnership
Al-Alimi said years of conflict had shown that supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government and strengthening its economic, security and military capabilities represented an investment in international security and stability.
“Protecting this strategic passage is a shared regional and international responsibility that Yemen cannot bear alone,” he said.
He said a secure Red Sea depended on a stable Yemen, while stability in Yemen required the restoration of effective state authority.
“There can be no sustainable peace as long as an armed militia remains above the state and outside the law,” al-Alimi said, adding that restoring the Yemeni state would contribute directly to regional stability and protect one of the world’s most important maritime corridors.
Al-Alimi accuses Houthis of undermining peace efforts
Al-Alimi said the Yemeni government had responded “responsibly and positively” to regional and international initiatives and had made major concessions in an effort to achieve peace and ease the suffering of Yemenis.
He accused the Houthis of answering those efforts with intransigence and using periods of humanitarian truce to expand their military arsenal at the expense of the Yemeni people.
Al-Alimi also accused the group of rejecting peace initiatives and escalating attacks in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb in support of “an Iranian agenda” that extends beyond Yemen’s national interests.
He said the Houthi threat was being reinforced by “the absence of an effective and decisive international position”.
Al-Alimi urged the international community to establish a “strategic partnership” with Yemen to strengthen regional security and stability, saying the government was capable of ending the threat posed by the Houthis.
