January 12 ------ The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanded Yemen’s Houthis immediately end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and cautioned against escalating tensions while implicitly endorsing a US-led task force that has been defending vessels.
The demand came in a UNSC resolution that also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on November 19, and its 25-person crew. Eleven members voted for the measure demanding the Houthis “immediately cease all attacks, which impede global commerce and navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace.” Four members, including veto-wielding Russia and China, abstained. None voted against it. The key provision of the resolution, sponsored by the US and Japan, noted the right of UN member states, under international law, “to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms.”
The provision amounted to an implicit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led multinational naval task force that has been defending commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from Houthi missile and drone attacks. “The threat to navigational rights and freedoms in the Red Sea is a global challenge that necessitates a global response,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in urging the council to approve the resolution.
Source: inquirer.net
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