UN envoy says Yemen’s renewed war risks becoming ‘prolonged,’ wider regional conflict

Merve Aydogan

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said Thursday that Yemen’s return to conflict threatens to draw the country into a broader regional confrontation.

“When I briefed this council last month, I warned that Yemen was facing the greatest risk of a return to large-scale conflict since the 2022 truce. That risk has now turned into a harsh reality,” Grundberg said at a UN Security Council session on Yemen.

He said the fighting marks a turning point after years of relative stability.

“This renewed war should alarm us all,” he said. It “effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce.”

He warned that the conflict could spread well beyond Yemen’s borders.

“It not only threatens to plunge Yemen into a prolonged and expanding war, but also risks yet again dragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions,” he said.

Grundberg stressed that diplomacy remains possible, noting he had already put forward proposals to prevent the escalation.

“Yemeni demands can be addressed at the negotiating table,” he said, adding that in the lead-up to the escalation, he had “tabled proposals that offered a credible alternative.”

Grundberg’s remarks came as Yemen’s western coast witnessed rapid military developments, with media reporting Houthi advances on several fronts toward areas near Mocha and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Yemeni media reported Thursday that Houthi forces had entered areas in Hays and Al-Khawkhah districts in southern Al-Hudaydah province after government and allied forces withdrew from positions in the area.

Mocha and its surrounding coast have strategic importance due to their proximity to Bab al-Mandeb, one of the world’s key maritime routes linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen has seen renewed military escalation between government forces and the Houthis since early July, after years of relative calm following a truce that began in April 2022.

The Houthis have controlled the national capital, Sanaa, and large areas of northern and western Yemen since September 2014, while the government and allied forces control areas in the south and east.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition supporting Yemen’s government against the Houthis, who are accused of receiving support from Iran.