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UNITED NATIONS — <\/span>Yemen’s internationally recognized government pressed world leaders anew Thursday for help defeating the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, saying that their new perch along one of the world’s busiest waterways<\/a> presents an international economic risk. <\/p>\n The Houthis \u2014 who have controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north for over a decade \u2014 stormed down Yemen’s coast this month and seized the crucial port city of Mokha<\/a> and key Red Sea islands. That gives them better surveillance of ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, at the sea’s southern end. About 12% of the world\u2019s trade usually passes through the waterway. <\/p>\n The rebels have declared a blockade on Saudi shipping. While asserting there’s no other threat to commercial shipping on the Red Sea, they have warned other nations<\/a> not to get involved.<\/p>\n But the vice president of the internationally recognized government council urged world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly not to trust the Houthis’ assurances \u2014 and to see a bigger picture in the strife around the strait. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Houthi militias’ use of the safety of navigation as a tool for blackmail threatens not only Yemen. It is taking hostage the entire global economy,\u201d said the vice president, Abdullah Abdulkader al Alimi-Bawzer. <\/p>\n Arguing that protecting the strait \u201cis the responsibility of every economy that depends on secure supply chains, energy security and freedom of navigation,\u201d he urged the international community to keep weapons and technology from getting into the rebels’ hands. <\/p>\n For years, the U.N. Security Council has imposed an arms embargo<\/a> on the Houthis and an asset freeze and travel ban on their leaders and top officials.<\/p>\n Iran denies arming the Houthis, but smuggled Iranian weapons and parts have been seized<\/a> from numerous shipments bound for Yemen, and a report by U.N. experts in 2024<\/a> documented extensive military ties between the Houthis, Iran and its other allies. Al Alimi-Bawzer contended Thursday that the rebels wouldn’t have been able to maintain their position for a dozen years without Iranian weapons, expertise and military technologies.<\/p>\n The Houthis claimed Thursday to have fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia\u2019s southwestern Jazan province. A Saudi military spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, said the kingdom intercepted six ballistic missiles<\/a> targeting its Red Sea port of Yanbu and the southwestern city of Taif, blaming the Houthis. <\/p>\n His statement followed alerts by Saudi civil defense authorities, who later noted the danger had passed.<\/p>\n In Yemen, the latest fighting risks a full-scale return to the civil war that killed more than 150,000 people and forced millions from their homes. Already, nearly 130,000 people have been newly displaced and hundreds killed, and a humanitarian crisis is deepening in the Arab world\u2019s poorest country.<\/p>\n The fighting near the crucial Red Sea shipping corridor and the Houthis’ pursuit of a blockade of Saudi Arabia, the world\u2019s top oil exporter, also have worried global markets. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait has become all the more crucial since Iran<\/a> has asserted control over the even busier Strait of Hormuz, off its coast, since the U.S. and Israel attacked the Islamic Republic in February.<\/p>\n After the Houthis overran Sanaa and northern parts of Yemen in 2014, Saudi Arabia formed a military coalition to intervene on behalf of the Yemeni government. But the fighting wore on, and the Houthis endured<\/a>. <\/p>\n A truce took hold in 2022. But after the Israel-Hamas war<\/a> began the next year, the Houthis began attacking Red Sea shipping<\/a>. The attacks continued until a U.S. bombing campaign in 2025.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Al Alimi-Bawzer thanked the Saudis and hailed the U.S. for having shown a \u201cdecisive approach.\u201d <\/p>\n