Russia condemns US and UK attacks in Yemen

The strikes on dozens of targets in Yemen were carried out by the US and the UK with support from the Netherlands, Australia, Bahrain and Canada, according to US Central Command. Washington said the strikes were “defensive” in nature and aimed at reducing tensions in the Middle East.

“We condemn these attacks,” Peskov said when asked about the US-UK actions at a press conference. “The UN Security Council resolution does not authorize airstrikes, so they are illegal under international law.”

The Russian president’s spokesman was referring to a January 10 United Nations document calling on the Houthi movement to stop attacks on merchant ships. Western strikes on several sites in Yemen are believed to have targeted the rebel group’s military assets.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova presented Russia’s position. She said Moscow’s concerns that the US actions at the UN Security Council “are just a pretext for further escalation in the region” were confirmed by the attacks. “A major military escalation in the Red Sea region could nullify all the positive trends that have emerged recently in the Yemeni reconciliation process and destabilize the entire Middle East,” she warned.
Russia was among four Security Council members, along with Algeria, China and Mozambique, who abstained in the January 10 vote on Resolution 2722.
In addition, Ms. Zakharova accused the US of often manipulating UN decisions in an attempt to justify military adventures. Citing NATO's 2011 bombing of Libya and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Russian diplomat said: "The people of those countries and the entire region are still feeling the consequences of illegal military intervention by Washington and its accomplices." Moscow views the attacks as a threat to global peace, and therefore a matter for the Security Council to address. The Houthis have begun targeting civilian traffic passing through the Red Sea in an attempt to harm Israeli trade. The move is in retaliation for the siege of the Gaza Strip, which has lasted for more than three months and is believed to have claimed the lives of more than 20,000 people in the Palestinian enclave. Israel says its goal is to eliminate Hamas, the militant group responsible for a deadly attack in early October last year, but critics accuse Israel of seeking ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Russia has criticized Hamas for the terrorist attack and Israel for its conduct of the Gaza campaign. It has also accused the US of derailing international efforts to secure a ceasefire. Peskov stressed that the Houthis’ targeting of civilian ships was also “extremely wrong.”