The United Nations Security Council. File
| Photo Credit: AP
The United Nations Security Council on Friday (September 25, 2026) condemned escalating attacks on Saudi Arabia by Yemeni Houthi fighters in a rare show of unity from the UN’s top body.
The Houthis have imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, hitting its tankers, seizing swathes of Yemen’s Red Sea coast vital for oil exports and causing energy prices to jump, while also raining missiles on the kingdom.
A ground campaign being waged by Houthi forces against Saudi-backed Yemeni forces is also threatening a humanitarian crisis, with 138,000 people displaced across Yemen since August, with 70,000 children among them, according to the UN. That is the highest level of displacement since a 2022 truce.
“The members of the Security Council condemned, in the strongest terms, continued Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including attacks impacting civilian and energy infrastructure, which have resulted in the injury of civilians, including women and children,” said the rotating president of the council, French UN envoy Jerome Bonnafont, delivering a joint statement.
Deepening humanitarian crisis
The council stressed the importance of upholding international law and freedom of navigation. The body also “demanded the Houthis immediately cease their military escalation and their attacks impacting civilians and civilian objects,” according to the statement.
Houthi gains in recent weeks cemented the hold of Iran and its allies on the two waterways that the wider Gulf, including top crude exporter Saudi Arabia, relies on to ship out oil and other fuel products. The other key waterway is the Strait of Hormuz.
The UN refugee agency chief, Barham Salih, warned Friday (September 25, 2026) that “the latest escalation is also very disconcerting.”
“(In) Yemen’s deepening humanitarian crisis, where civilians continue to bear the brunt of this conflict, tens of thousands of people have already been displaced by the recent escalation and hostilities, with thousands fleeing the conflict, looking for safety in Djibouti and elsewhere,” he said.
“More crossings are reported to be underway.”
Over 3,500 people have made the dangerous journey across the water to the east African nation of Djibouti, the International Organization of Migration said.
The Security Council statement called for “full, safe, rapid, and unhindered humanitarian access to all civilians in need.”
More than 2.2 million children under five across Yemen were acutely malnourished, the UN says, with over half a million suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form.
Washington and its allies, including Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, accuse Iran of backing the Houthi militant movement.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian denied the allegation on Thursday (September 24, 2026), saying “the Houthis are responsible for their own actions.”
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan — which signed a joint defence agreement last month — will hold chief of staff talks to support the kingdom, Riyadh said in a statement on Friday, raising the prospect of a joint response to Houthi attacks.
Published – September 25, 2026 11:07 pm IST
