UN Security Council approves arms embargo against Yemen’s Houthi rebels

The U.N. Security Council has approved an arms embargo on leaders of Yemen's Shia Houthi rebels and their key supporters, including former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son. The vote Tuesday was 14-0, with Russia abstaining.

The measure is aimed at rolling back territorial gains that the Houthis have made in Yemen since September 2014, when they seized the capital, Sanaa. They have since advanced toward the southern port city of Aden, forcing President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee the country and leading a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states to launch airstrikes against the rebels.

The strikes, now in their third week, have killed numerous civilians, destroyed vital infrastructure and pushed the Middle East’s poorest nation to the brink of collapse.

The Jordanian-sponsored resolution aimed to halt the fighting by imposing an asset freeze and travel ban on Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and the former president's eldest son, Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh. In November the council imposed the same sanctions on the former president; the rebel group's military commander, Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi; and the Houthi's second-in-command, Abdullah Yahya al Hakim.

The resolution also imposes an arms embargo on all five men and calls on all countries, especially Yemen's neighbors, to inspect cargo headed to Yemen if there are "reasonable grounds" to believe it contains weapons.

Russia, however, had insisted that an arms embargo be imposed on all parties in the conflict, not just the rebels and their supporters. It ultimately abstained from voting.

Earlier this month, Russia circulated a separate draft resolution calling for "regular and obligatory" humanitarian pauses in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition to help evacuate foreigners from Yemen and ease access to relief groups aiming to deliver aid to civilians caught in the fighting.

Humanitarian groups have struggled to bring aid into the country and said on Monday that the situation in Aden is deteriorating rapidly.

"Over 600 people [have been] killed [in the conflict], but more than half of them are civilians. This is particularly concerning," said Ivan Simonovic, the U.N.'s deputy secretary-general for human rights. 

The resolution demands that all Yemeni parties, especially the Houthis, end the use of violence and "resume and accelerate" U.N.-brokered negotiations for a political transition.

It insisted the Houthis withdraw from areas they have seized, relinquish all arms and missiles appropriated from military and security institutions and release all political prisoners.

The measure also threatens further sanctions in case "any Yemeni party" fails to implement its provisions.

Jordan decided to put the resolution to a vote as Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called on Iran, which backs the Houthis, to use its influence to help bring the rebels to the negotiating table. Observers say the fighting in Yemen has increasingly taken on the appearance of a proxy war between regional rivals Shia powerhouse Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia. 

Iran laid out a four-point peace plan for Yemen on Tuesday, including dialogue and humanitarian aid, and renewed its call for an end to Saudi-led airstrikes against the Houthis. 

"This issue should be resolved by the Yemenis ... Iran and Saudi Arabia need to talk, but we cannot talk to determine the future of Yemen," said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Al Jazeera and wire services