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UN Envoy Meets Houthis Amid Escalating Yemen Violence, Red Sea Threats
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News18•29-09-2026, 18:45
UN Envoy Meets Houthis Amid Escalating Yemen Violence, Red Sea Threats
- •UN envoy Hans Grundberg met with Houthi negotiators in Muscat to de-escalate the conflict in Yemen, following fierce battles on the western coast and a significant Houthi land grab.
- •The renewed violence, which ended a 2022 ceasefire, has resulted in hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, and displaced over 145,000 people within Yemen, with more fleeing to Djibouti.
- •Houthis have intensified cross-border attacks into Saudi Arabia, targeting oil facilities and threatening shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical global trade route.
- •Grundberg highlighted the unprecedented and dramatic escalation, noting the shift of battle lines to the Red Sea coast and attacks on commercial shipping, raising concerns for the Security Council.
- •The Yemen conflict is increasingly intertwined with broader Middle East instability, including the US-Israeli war against Iran, complicating resolution efforts and turning it into a regional proxy war.
Key Questions Answered
The UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, met with the Houthis' chief negotiator, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, in Muscat.
The conflict began in 2014 when Iran-backed rebels took over Sanaa. The current escalation was triggered when the Houthis captured the strategic city of Mokha, Red Sea islands, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, ending a 2022 ceasefire.
The fighting and rebel assaults have killed at least 838 people, wounded over 3,640 others, forced more than 145,000 people to flee their homes internally, and driven over 3,000 others to cross into Djibouti.
