Yemen is facing a more serious risk of return to large-scale conflict than at any point since the 2022 truce, the UN's envoy to the country said on Thursday.
Hans Grundberg said a recent intensification of military activity along front lines risks years of work towards a lasting peace in the country that has long been divided by civil war.
"A return to large-scale fighting in Yemen now would come at an unforgiving moment, with Yemen's state institutions fragmented by over a decade of conflict, its economy left with little margin to absorb another shock, and the wider region engulfed by war," he told the UN Security Council.
The Houthis and the internationally recognised Yemeni government signed a UN-mediated truce in 2022. While the truce expired later that same year, fighting between the parties largely ended.
But Yemen was drawn into conflict earlier this year with the advent of the US-Iran war. The Iran-aligned Houthis were accused of carrying out a missile strike this week on a ship transiting the Bab Al Mandeb Strait, killing six people, and the group has claimed attacks on Saudi targets in the region.
This came after an air strike in July hit the runway of Yemen's Sanaa airport, blocking the landing of an Iranian flight carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation. The Houthis blamed the strikes on Saudi Arabia, while Yemen's government said the runway had been attacked to prevent the Iranian plane from landing.
Mr Grundberg urged the warring parties to de-escalate and work towards a lasting ceasefire, and to collaborate with the UN on a Yemen-owned political process.
"Four years of calm can be lost in a few weeks of escalation," Mr Grundberg said. "I am not asking this council today merely for statements of support. I am asking every member with influence over the parties to use it to steer Yemen away from the battlefield and back to the negotiation table."
Tom Fletcher, the UN's top relief co-ordinator, highlighted that the humanitarian situation in the country was at risk of deteriorating further.
"More than a decade into this conflict, millions of Yemenis face impossible daily choices: food or medicine, education or work, survival or displacement, and I'm afraid the toll on women and girls is particularly alarming," he told the Security Council.
He said that with the humanitarian appeal barely 20 per cent funded, "the calculation is simple: when funding drops, rations are cut, clinics close, and protection services disappear".
The UK blamed the current situation on "reckless Houthi actions".
"We urge the Houthis to focus on efforts to achieve peace and alleviate the suffering of Yemenis, rather than seeking to embroil Yemen in a wider regional conflict," said Kate Foster, deputy UK representative to the UN.
The US also took aim at the Houthis, saying the group's actions represented "a systematic campaign to protect regional power and disrupt critical corridors".
"We demand that the Houthis cease attacks against countries in the region and all actions which undermine freedom of navigation in the Red Sea," said Jennifer Locetta, alternate US representative to the UN for special political affairs.
Russia, however, said the escalation began with an "excessive" use of force following the attempted landing of the Iranian flight.
"Of course, those flights should have been agreed in advance with the official Yemeni authorities," said senior counsellor Dina Gilmutdinova. "However, the very harsh reaction to them from the Arab coalition, in the form of bombings of the runway at Sanaa International Airport, seems excessive, particularly given the civilian and humanitarian significance of these of this air hub for the Yemeni people."
The representative for Yemen's internationally recognised government laid all the blame at the Houthis' door.
"The Houthi militias ... have chosen chaos and war over the stability of the state," said Abdullah Al Saadi, Yemen's UN representative, accusing the group of attempting to create an air bridge to funnel Iranian weapons and experts to Sanaa.
Mr Al Saadi called on the council to back up words with actions, urging it to prevent the smuggling of weapons and military expertise to the Houthis, and "holding perpetrators accountable for violations of the sanctions regime".
