The UN Security Council has called for an immediate end to attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, passing a resolution despite abstentions from Russia and China.
The resolution also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group seized on November 19 along with its 25-member crew.
U.S. Central Command said there have been 26 Houthi attacks on shipping since then, causing shipping companies to bypass the route and sail around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, significantly increasing travel times and costs.
An attack and boarding of the St. Nikolas off the coast of Oman, reported hours after the UN Security Council passed the resolution, has yet to be identified and may be the work of Iranians rather than Yemen-based Houthis.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said further attacks could trigger a military response from the West. He spoke after American and British warships shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by the Houthis on Tuesday, in what London described as the largest attack of its kind in the region.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said the United Kingdom, its Western allies and Saudi Arabia “all agreed” that the series of attacks on warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea “cannot continue” and concluded an attack on the Houthi military not targeting targets on land.
The Houthis, an Iran-aligned group that has seized swathes of Yemen in a civil war, have vowed to attack ships linked to Israel or calling at Israeli ports to show their support for Hamas in its war in Gaza show. However, many of the ships attacked had no connection to Israel.
Israel was due to appear before the International Court of Justice on Thursday to defend itself against allegations of genocide in Gaza. The initial hearings will focus on requests from South Africa – which filed the case – for emergency measures ordering Israel to suspend its military actions in Gaza while the court decides the merits of the case, a process that could take years.
A key provision of Wednesday's Security Council resolution – which was backed by the US and Japan – mentioned the right of UN member states, in accordance with international law, “to protect their ships from attacks, including those infringing navigational rights and – freedoms undermined”.
Map of the Red Sea
The provision amounted to a tacit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a U.S.-led multinational naval task force that defends merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from Houthi missile and drone attacks.
A Houthi spokesman in Yemen dismissed the resolution as a “political game” and said the US was the one that violated international law.
The council adopted the resolution after rejecting amendments proposed by Russia that would have nullified implicit support for the U.S.-led task force and included the war in Gaza among the “root causes” of the Houthi attacks.
Russian Ambassador Wassily Nebenzia questioned the task force's legitimacy, saying the resolution as drafted was “a blessing without end.”
Although Russia and China had veto power in the Security Council, they abstained, as did Mozambique and Algeria.
The resolution highlights the “serious” violations of an arms embargo against the Houthis, reiterates the need for all member states to “fulfill their obligations” and condemns “the supply of arms” to the Houthis.
Washington's UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “Iran has long supported the Houthis' destabilizing actions in the region through both financial and material support.”
Antony Blinken warns Houthis of 'consequences' for attacking ships in Red Sea – VideoThe United Nations had previously said it remained “gravely concerned about the situation in the Red Sea, not only because of the situation itself and the risks it poses to global trade.”
A report this week from Windward, a maritime analysis firm, showed that since the Houthis began attacking the Red Sea, the number of transits through the key shipping route had dropped significantly.
In the second week of December, there was a 70% decrease in container ships passing through the southern entrance to the Red Sea, the Bab-Al-Mandeb Strait, compared to the 2023 weekly average. At the same time, there was a 136% increase in travel through the Cape of Good Hope.
Analysts and government officials have warned that the ongoing disruption to maritime trade could lead to rising energy and food prices.
In the case of the St. Nikolas, the UK Maritime Trade Organization (UKMTO) announced on its social media account that four to five masked men wearing military-style uniforms and masks boarded a ship 50 nautical miles east of the port of Sohar, an area had not yet been the subject of attacks by the Houthis. The group had covered the surveillance cameras on board.
Maritime security firm Ambrey said the ship had been prosecuted in the past for carrying sanctioned Iranian oil, adding that the tanker was heading towards Bandar-e-Jask in Iran.
Spokespeople for Greek ship manager Empire Management said they had lost contact with the ship and its 19 mostly Filipino crew. “In recent days, the ship had loaded a cargo of around 145,000 tonnes of crude oil in Basra (Iraq) via the Suez Canal to Aliaga (Turkey). The ship’s charterer is Tupras,” they said.
UKMTO urged shipping to proceed with caution.
Portal and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report