Israel has called on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to denounce Tehran's support for Yemen's Houthi militants, after multiple launches by Iran-backed insurgents targeted the Jewish state.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar made the request in a letter to US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is the rotating president of the UN Security Council.
In the letter, Sa’ar cited three attacks on Israel over the past week by the Houthis, one of which destroyed a school in Ramat Gan.
“I must underscore that the persistent acts of hostility by the Houthis are in flagrant violation of international law,” he said, calling them “an ongoing threat to international peace and security.”
The Houthis fired another missile at Israel on Tuesday, hours after Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to "behead" the Houthis' leaders.
"These days, when the Houthi terrorist organization is firing missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them at the beginning of my remarks: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded Iran's defense systems and damaged the production systems, we have toppled the Assad regime in Syria, we have dealt a severe blow to the axis of evil, and we will also deal a severe blow to the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, which remains the last to stand," Katz said Monday.
"We'll severely cripple the Houthis, damage their strategic infrastructure, and we will behead their leaders – just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do it in Hodeidah and Sana'a," Katz added.
Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, who sits on the Houthi political council in Yemen, sent a threatening message to the US and Saudi Arabia on Monday, saying that "if the Americans attack Yemen, we will attack their interests in the Middle East."
"We will have no red lines," he said, two days after the United States launched precision airstrikes targeting multiple military positions in Sana'a.
Israel's top diplomat on Tuesday instructed his country's diplomatic missions in the European Union and the United Kingdom to push for the designation of Houthis as a terrorist organization.
“The Houthis pose a threat not only to Israel but to the region and the entire world,” Sa’ar said in a statement, warning of the group’s threat to international shipping lanes and calling their designation as terrorists “the first and most basic step” in countering them.
The Houthis are designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Israel. However, no European countries have listed the group as such to date.
