UN envoy to Yemen warns of a ‘devastating’ regional escalation, but points to glimmer of hope
UNITED NATIONS — The UN envoy to Yemen warned on Tuesday that recent developments in the Red SeaIsrael and within the country “show the real danger of a devastating escalation across the region” — but he also pointed to a glimmer of hope.
Hans Grundberg said that the warring parties in Yemen – the internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels – told him Monday night “that they have agreed on a path to de-escalate a cycle of measures and countermeasures designed to tighten their grip on the banking and transportation sectors.”
Grundberg told the UN Security Council that the seven-month escalation reached “a new and dangerous level” last week, with a Houthis drone attack on Tel Aviv and Israeli retaliation against Yemen’s main port of Hodeida and oil and energy facilities there.
He said Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways continue, that the rebels are stepping up their repression “on civilian space and on international organizations,” and that escalating economic problems “have translated into public threats to return to full-fledged war.”
Yemen is embroiled in a civil war since 2014when the Iran-backed Houthis seized much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government to flee the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of government forces, and over time the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
While fighting has eased significantly since a six-month ceasefire in 2022, Grundberg told the council this month that fighting has been reported along numerous front lines “and we have seen an increase in military preparations and reinforcements.”
Much of southern Yemen, including the major city of Aden, is controlled by the secessionist Southern Transitional Councila group backed by the United Arab Emirates that is an ally of the internationally recognized government.
The rivalry between the Houthis and the southern government has fueled the situation an economic gapwith the rivals establishing separate and independent central banks and different versions of the country’s currency, the riyal.
Grundberg did not provide details of the de-escalation agreement the parties briefed him on, but he told the council that the “agreement” followed months of contacts with his office, which warned of the risk to the Yemeni people that “the increasing weaponization of the economy” would pose.
“I welcome the parties’ decision to choose a path of dialogue and look forward to further engaging with the parties to support them in implementing their commitments regarding the banking sector and Yemenia Airways,” he said. “The goal remains a unified currency, a unified and independent central bank, and a banking sector free from political interference.”
Nevertheless, while Grundberg welcomed the willingness of both sides to address economic issues, he said: “I reiterate my warning to the council that we risk returning to full-scale war and all the predictable human suffering and regional implications that that entails.”
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and faces one of the worst problems in the world. humanitarian crises.
Joyce Msuya, the UN’s acting humanitarian chief, told the council that Yemen’s GDP has shrunk by more than half since the conflict began. A recent World Bank analysis found that GDP has shrunk even further in the past year.
The fall in the value of the riyal has made already sky-high food prices unaffordable for millions of people, she said.
“I urge the parties to seize this opportunity to find sustainable solutions to these challenges,” Msuya said. “Millions of people across the country depend on it.”
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Jade Lozada contributed to this United Nations report