Yemeni Presidential Council Chairman: Houthi escalation is a test of the international community's seriousness in protecting the chances for peace

Aden, Aug 10 (KUNA) -- Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi said on Monday that the recent escalation by the terrorist Houthi militia "represents a new test of the international community's seriousness in protecting the peace opportunities that the Yemeni government and friendly and sister countries have invested in over the years."

The official Yemeni news agency reported that these remarks were made during a meeting between al-Alimi and the ambassadors of the countries sponsoring the political process in Yemen, during which he briefed them on the latest Houthi escalation, including the targeting of military sites, economic and civilian facilities, and displacement camps in Hadhramaut and Marib governorates with ballistic missiles and drones, as well as the attack on the port of Al-Mukha on the Red Sea, which resulted in civilian casualties, including women and children.

Al-Alimi added that "the Yemeni state will not allow its commitment to peace to become an open license for the Houthi militia to choose when and where to attack, and then demand that everyone exercise restraint when the response comes."

He clarified that the Yemeni government did not test the military option first, "but rather tested peace first, with exceptional patience," noting that it respected de-escalation, exercised restraint, facilitated the movement of flights and ports, ensured the flow of goods, responded to the efforts of the United Nations, brothers, and friends, and bore significant political and economic costs "because we believe that the lives of Yemenis are more precious than anything else."

Al-Alimi stated that the field and political equation has changed, and that the Houthi militia must realize that "the era of cost-free aggression is over," emphasizing that any attack on any governorate or front is an attack on the state as a whole and will not go unpunished.

He affirmed that the state will no longer allow the militias to monopolize the decision to initiate confrontation, its timing, location, and scale, and then monopolize the decision on when it should stop.

Al-Alimi pointed out that "what we are witnessing today is the result of years of international leniency and incentives that this deviant group believed it could extract more of through missiles and suicide drones."

He called on the international community to take a clear and swift political stance condemning the targeting of ports, civilian facilities, and civilians, and holding the Houthi militia responsible for the escalation, while emphasizing the importance of supporting the Yemeni government's right to protect its citizens, institutions, and economic facilities within the framework of international law.

Al-Alimi stressed the necessity for the international community to assume its responsibilities in protecting the rules of the international system, which include the protection of civilians, the inviolability of civilian facilities and objects, commercial ports, and state sovereignty, and rejecting the use of missiles and drones to impose illegitimate gains, and refusing to equate the state with the militia.

For their part, the ambassadors of the countries sponsoring the political process strongly condemned the recent Houthi escalation and attacks on government forces, civilian facilities, and economic installations, as well as the attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and commercial ships. They affirmed their countries' support for efforts to counter these threats, protect civilians, and ensure the freedom and security of international navigation, while rejecting the use of violence, missiles, and drones as a means to extract illegitimate political and economic gains.

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