UN envoy to Yemen warns of a ‘devastating’ regional escalation, but points to glimmer of hope

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Hans Grundberg said Yemen’s warring parties — the internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels – informed him Monday night “that they have agreed on a path to de-escalate a cycle of measures and countermeasures which had sought to tighten their grip on the banking and transport sectors.” Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that seven months of escalation reached “a new and dangerous level last week” which saw a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv and Israeli retaliatory attacks on Yemen’s key port of Hodeida and its oil and power facilities. He said Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways continue, and that the rebels are escalating their crackdown “on civic space and on international organizations,” and escalating economic issues have been “translating into public threats to return to full-fledged war.” Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthis seized much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government to flee from the capital, Sanaa. While fighting has decreased considerably since a six-month truce in 2022, Grundberg told the council this month clashes have been reported along numerous frontlines “and we have witnessed an increase in military preparations and reinforcements.” Much of Yemen’s south including the major city Aden is governed by the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, a United Arab Emirates-backed group that is an ally of the internationally recognized government. “The aim remains a unified currency, a unified and independent central bank, and a banking sector free of political interference.” Nonetheless, while Grundberg welcomed the willingness of both sides to engage on economic issues, he said, “I reiterate my warning to the council that we risk a return to full-scale war and all the predictable human suffering and regional implications that entails.” Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest country and faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.