UNITED NATIONS, April 15. /TASS/. The US and British strikes on the territory of Yemen are unacceptable, they damage the intra-Yemeni settlement, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky told a meeting of the UN Security Council.
"We note the destructive role of the self-proclaimed coalition led by the US and the UK, which continues weekly attacks on Yemeni territory <...>. We reiterate that the missile and bombing raids by the US-led Western coalition on the territory of sovereign Yemen are categorically unacceptable, as well as attempts to justify the aggression with Security Council Resolution 2722 or references to the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter," he said.
"Such actions harm the intra-Yemeni settlement, undermining the efforts of international and regional mediators," Polyansky noted, adding that the Yemeni settlement has been put on pause because of such actions.
Following the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Ansar Allah movement said it would strike Israeli territory and prevent ships associated with Israel from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait until the operation in the Palestinian enclave was halted. The Houthis have attacked dozens of civilian ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since last November. On March 14, the movement’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said that his supporters were determined to attack Israel-linked ships traveling across the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope.
In response to the Houthis’ actions, the US authorities announced the establishment of an international coalition and the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian to ensure freedom of navigation and protection of ships in the Red Sea. British and US forces started carrying out regular strikes on the rebels’ military targets across Yemen.
On January 12, US and British aircraft, ships and submarines carried out their initial attack on targets belonging to the Yemen-based rebel Houthi movement Ansar Allah in a number of Yemeni cities, including Sana’a and Hodeidah. The strikes targeted the launch sites of rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as radar stations belonging to the Houthi rebels.