As world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly next week, they have an opportunity to finally prove the international body’s relevance and resolve.
The Houthis’ escalating campaign of terror in Yemen and the Middle East, and their actions this week, demand immediate and decisive action from the international community. It is fair to say that enough should be enough.
The Yemen-based terrorist group’s raid on UN facilities this week, where they took at least 11 personnel of the World Food Program, WHO, and UNICEF hostage, should shock those from the very institution that some world leaders hope can mediate peace.
This blatant violation of international law should serve as a wake-up call to those who still harbor illusions about the region’s geopolitics.
Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, “strongly” condemned the detentions, as well as the forced entry into UN premises.
It would be amiss to ask Mr. Grundberg where he may have been these past few years, if not in Yemen, as he clearly seems to be under the impression that Yemen is not part of the geopolitical battleground of the Middle East.
The General Assembly must recognize that the Houthi crisis is inseparable from Iran’s broader destabilizing influence across the Middle East. Any effective response, should the body decide to finally do something, has to address Tehran’s role in arming and directing proxy groups from Yemen to Libya to Gaza.
The international community cannot continue to treat these as separate conflicts when they are clearly part of Iran’s coordinated campaign to reshape the regional order through violence.
The assault on UN personnel is the latest Houthi aggression that has destabilized the entire area. For years, the Iranian proxies have terrorized international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting vessels with missiles and drones in a campaign that has disrupted global commerce and endangered countless lives.
The international community must recognize a fundamental truth. There is no legitimate Houthi government in Yemen. Iran is the sole country that officially recognizes that government. This is the same Iran that arms, funds, and directs their campaign of regional terror.