by JPost editorial
As world leaders gather at the United Nations General Assembly in 2025, the international community must address the growing Houthi terror and Iran’s destabilizing influence across the Middle East.
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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. (On September 16, the Yemeni Civil War will pass into its 11th consecutive year, with over 350,000 civilians killed, including 85,000 children dead from starvation, according to Save the Children.)
Many leaders looking ahead to the UNGA have used the opportunity to make statements supporting the creation of a Palestinian state, and to bombast Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, but all the while forgetting the constant and underlying threat to all of the region’s woes: Iran.
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.
Huge economic implications of maritime terrorism
Their recent claim of launching missiles at Israeli-owned tankers near western Saudi Arabia’s port city of Yanbu is proof of their continued commitment to spreading chaos throughout vital maritime corridors.The economic implications of this maritime terrorism are huge. The Red Sea handles approximately 12% of global trade, and Houthi attacks have forced shipping companies to reroute vessels around Africa, increasing costs and delivery times for goods worldwide.
While attacks of maritime kidnappings may not be as frequent as they once were, Israelis are well placed to tell the world that the Houthis are still here, they are still firing missiles, and they still do not want peace.
Perhaps most troubling is the lack of international condemnation at the Houthis’ persistent targeting of Israel through missile and drone attacks.
The attacks on Israeli civilians represent a clear violation of international law – they have no land border with Israel, nor have Yemen and Israel ever been at war – so this is terrorism, pure and simple.
The Israeli airstrikes that eliminated key Houthi leaders, including their so-called prime minister, were a necessary response to this ongoing aggression.
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.
The UN has kept silent about the attacks on Israel and on international shipping; perhaps it will finally decide that it has both the opportunity and the obligation to address this crisis comprehensively, now that its own employees have been kidnapped.
It certainly knows – from Israel’s ongoing experience – that their families will not want to suffer almost 700 days of captivity for their loved ones.
JPost editorial
Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-866013
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