YEMEN risks being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East that keeps intensifying and could spiral out of control, the United Nations special envoy for the Arab world’s poorest nation has said.

Hans Grundberg told the UN security council on Tuesday that regrettably Yemen is part of the escalation — and he warned that repeated attacks on international shipping by its Houthi-led government “have significantly increased the risk of an environmental disaster” in the Red Sea.

Both Mr Grundberg and the UN’s acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya urged the Yemenis to halt their attacks on international shipping, which they began in support of the Palestinians after Israel began its retaliation after the Hamas attack on October 7 in Gaza.