UN Security Council demands Houthis stop Red Sea attacks

(Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday demanded Yemen's Houthis immediately end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and cautioned against escalating tensions while implicitly endorsing a U.S.-led task force that has been defending vessels.

The demand came in a Security Council resolution that also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on Nov. 19, and its 25-person crew.

Eleven members voted for the resolution and four, including veto-wielding Russia and China, abstained. None voted against.

The key provision of the resolution, sponsored by the United States and Japan, noted the right of U.N. member states, in accordance with international law, "to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms."

The provision amounted to an implicit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a U.S.-led multinational naval task force that has been defending commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from Houthi missile and drone attacks.

"The threat to navigational rights and freedoms in the Red Sea is a global challenge that necessitates a global response," U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in urging the council to approve the resolution.

(Reporting By Jonathan Landay in Washington and Arshad Mohammed in Saint Paul, Minn.; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)