Since 2014, Yemen has been involved in conflict between the internationally recognized government and the Hutis militants (formally known as the Ansar Allah movement). A fragile truce negotiated in 2022 has helped reduce the fight, but the violations are ongoing.
Millions have been displaced throughout the country, and one of the poorest in the Middle East, while public services and infrastructure have collapsed.
Humanitarian workers have also been attacked by the Hutis, who control large extensions of the country, including the capital, with dozens of UN staff arrested by the group offices and the agency raided.
“Hutis militias are no longer a rebel group in a remote area,” President Al-Alimi told the annual debate of the General Assembly.
International horror group
“Rather, they are (one) armed international terrorist organization to the teeth with an advanced Iranian arsenal, including ballistic missiles and drones, boats and sea mines trapped in the sea, and missiles and other qualitative weapons that are prohibited internationally.”
Mr. Al-Alimi, who directs the Yemen Presidential Leadership Council, said that after more than a decade of war, Yemenis are living through “one of the greatest humanitarian crises” while facing “security threats that transcend our borders and extend to the region and everyone.”
He accused the hutis of using “hunger as a weapon, religion as a tool and maritime passages as a blackmail means”, warning that the Red Sea and international shipping lanes run the risk of becoming permanent dams of terrorism.
He dismissed years of international containment efforts as ineffective.
“The conflict management policy by offering more incentives has only brought more disaster and destruction,” he said.
He said that the UN has been “unable to protect their own staff, who were kidnapped in Sanaa, unable to protect oil facilities and commercial ships.”
Call for effective action
The Yemeni leader requested an “effective international coalition to restore security, stability and a coalition that would rebuild state institutions and release the country from the claws of militias and all forms of terrorist groups.”
Yemen’s crisis is an international credibility test, he emphasized.
“What we ask are not new statements, but an international action, firm international action, to support the legitimate government as a partner of confidence in the field.”
He reaffirmed Yemen’s support for the Palestinian cause, welcomed the growing international recognition of a Palestinian state and expressed his gratitude to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for his sustained support to his country.
“Yemen and Gaza … are the moral testing field of this (the United Nations). They are the place where we can definitely confirm that the power of the right can still face the right of power.”