UN Envoy to Yemen Warns of a 'Devastating' Regional Escalation, But Points to Glimmer of Hope

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. envoy for Yemen warned Tuesday that recent developments in the Red Sea, Israel and inside the country “show the real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation” — but he also pointed to a glimmer of hope.

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. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of government forces, and in time the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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.

Rivalry between the Houthis and the southern government have fueled an economic divide, with the rivals establishing separate and independent central banks and different versions of the country’s currency, the riyal.

Grundberg gave no details of the de-escalation agreement the parties informed him of, but he told the council the “understanding” followed months of contacts with his office, which warned of the risk to the Yemeni people that “the deepening weaponization of the economy” would pose.

“I welcome the parties’ decision to choose a path of dialogue and I look forward to engaging further with the parties to support them in implementing their commitments with regard to the banking sector and Yemenia Airways,” he said. “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.

Acting U.N. humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told the council that Yemen’s GDP has shrunk by more than half since the conflict began, and a recent World Bank analysis found it contracted even further in the last year.

The fall in the value of the riyal has driven already sky-high food prices further out of reach 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 report from the United Nations