Yemen’s Houthi-run Foreign Ministry says UN should not shield espionage activities

Audio By Carbonatix

(Reuters) -Yemen’s Houthi-run Foreign Ministry said United Nations officials’ legal immunities should not shield espionage activities, days after at least 18 U.N. personnel were detained in the capital Sanaa.

The U.N. said on Sunday that Houthi rebels raided its premises in Sanaa and detained U.N. staff, following an Israeli strike that killed the prime minister of the Houthi-run government and several other ministers. 

Before the weekend raids the Houthis were already holding 23 U.N. personnel, some since 2021. Another U.N. staff member died while in Houthi custody in February.

“So far, the UNICEF and WFP (World Food Programme) offices remain under the Houthi control,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday, again calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained.

He said the Houthis had also broken into the U.N. Development Programme complex.

“We reiterate that the safety and security of U.N. personnel and property must be guaranteed and that the inviolability of U.N. premises must be respected at all times,” he said.

The Houthi-run Foreign Ministry also accused the U.N. of bias, saying it had condemned “legal measures taken by the government against spy cells involved in crimes,” but failed to denounce the Israeli attack, the Houthi-run news agency Saba reported on Wednesday.

Yemen has been split between a Houthi administration in Sanaa and a Saudi-backed government in Aden since the Iran-aligned Houthis seized Sanaa in late 2014, triggering a decade-long conflict.

The ministry added that Yemen respected “the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations … while emphasizing that these immunities do not protect espionage activities or those who engage in them, nor provide them with legal cover,” it added.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Aden; Additional Reporting by Enas Alashray in Cairo; Editing by Rod Nickel and Sonali Paul)