Stopping the flow of weapons to the Houthis is a top priority

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After the failure of the United Nations mechanisms, the matter requires that countries take the initiative to implement the arms embargo imposed by Security Council resolutions issued under Chapter Seven. There are many maritime groups operating in the region, some of which are affiliated with the United States, some of which are to the European Union, and some of which are multinational such as the Joint Maritime Forces, which is led by the United States and in which 47 countries participate, including the Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

In their meeting held in Bahrain on Sunday, the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries called for the strict implementation of the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on the terrorist Houthi militia, as the continued flow of weapons is one of the reasons for their continued attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and on the Yemeni areas under government control.

Although the United Nations has imposed a comprehensive arms embargo on the Houthis since 2015, this embargo has not been effective and is easily violated, and some countries and arms smuggling companies still provide them with weapons of various types.

The Security Council Group of Experts, as well as the Conflict Armament Research Center, specialized in armaments in conflict zones, documented how the Houthis were able to smuggle advanced weapons, complete or in parts, including missiles and drones, through smuggling networks that deal with weapon manufacturers directly or through some countries.

In April 2015, Security Council Resolution 2216 imposed a comprehensive arms embargo on the Houthis, but the United Nations stopped the implementation of the embargo by the Yemeni government and the Coalition to Support Legitimacy, and instead created mechanisms that proved unsuccessful.

In May 2015, a month after the start of the embargo, the United Nations established the UNVIM Inspection and Verification Mechanism, but the Houthis prevented its inspectors from carrying out their work in the ports under their control, forcing the international organization to rely on inspecting ships in Djibouti. Due to the limited resources allocated to this process, inspection was limited to ships whose tonnage exceeded one hundred tons, which is why most shipments passed without inspection.

When the government forces and the coalition to support legitimacy attempted to liberate the port of Hodeidah in 2018, this attempt was aborted, and the United Nations established instead (the United Nations Mechanism to Support the Hodeidah Agreement) in January 2019 to implement what is known as the (Stockholm Agreement)... The failure of this mechanism was also due to the Houthis obstructing the work of United Nations inspectors. In March 2026, this mechanism was stopped with the start of military operations between the United States and Iran. Therefore, the Red Sea ports controlled by the Houthis remained the main source of arms smuggling.

In addition, according to the reports of the Security Council Group of Experts, the Houthis use smuggling gangs and networks to reach weapons by land and the coasts overlooking the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Despite the denial of the smuggling networks; These reports - as well as the stopped shipments from external forces heading to the Houthis - prove the involvement of these networks and gangs in smuggling weapons, including ballistic missiles and drones.

In addition to smuggling complete weapons systems, the Houthis are assembling some missiles and drones inside Yemen from smuggled parts and spare parts. This has become their preferred method, because it makes smuggling operations difficult to detect, reduces costs and helps the militias develop a local weapons industry.

In addition to smuggling, the Houthis rely on the Yemeni army's weapons stores that they seized with the help of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the forces that were loyal to him, and the Houthis are modernizing those weapons, including ballistic missiles, with the help of experts from Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard. According to a report by the Research Center (CAR), they were recently able to develop a missile with a range of two thousand kilometers, which brings most of the countries of the region within its range. Therefore, stopping the flow of weapons to the Houthis must be one of the most important priorities to stop their ongoing attacks on the Kingdom.

After the failure of the United Nations mechanisms, the matter requires that countries take the initiative to implement the arms embargo imposed by Security Council resolutions issued under Chapter Seven. There are many maritime groups operating in the region, some of which belong to the United States, some to the European Union, and some of which are multinational such as the Joint Maritime Forces, which is led by the United States and in which 47 countries participate, including the Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The Multinational Maritime Defense Alliance, which was established in July under the leadership of the Kingdom, can undertake the follow-up of the implementation of the arms embargo in coordination with these groups.