NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of rising threats to global maritime transport at a high-level Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

It follows almost two years of turmoil in the Red Sea, a vital shipping lane connecting global trade via the Suez Canal.

Yemen’s Houthi militia launched a campaign in late 2023 to prevent Israel-linked shipping from transiting the Red Sea, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The US responded with Operation Prosperity Guardian, a military campaign to target Houthi launch sites and infrastructure.

The EU contributed with EUNAVFOR Aspides, while Israel later responded to Houthi attacks with extensive strikes on Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah.

Tuesday’s Security Council meeting was chaired by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister.

Guterres told the meeting: “Without maritime security, there can be no global security.

“From time immemorial, maritime routes have bound the world together. They have long been the primary means for the trade and transport of not only people, goods and commodities, but also cultures and ideas.”

However, maritime spaces are “increasingly under strain” from traditional threats and “emerging dangers,” Guterres added.

He highlighted contested boundaries, the depletion of natural resources, conflict and crime as key issues affecting maritime security.

The first quarter of 2025 saw a “sharp upward reversal” in reported piracy and armed robbery at sea, Guterres said.

He highlighted the Houthi Red Sea campaign, warning it had “disrupted global trade and increased tensions in an already volatile region.”

Earlier this month, the US reached a ceasefire deal with the Houthis following mediation by Oman.

However, the militia and Israel continue to trade strikes.

Guterres called for three measures to improve global maritime security: Respect for international law; efforts to address the root causes of maritime insecurity; and partnerships involving “everyone with a stake in maritime spaces.”

The international legal framework for maritime security “is only as strong as states’ commitment” to its implementation, he said.

Globally, more must be done “to reduce the likelihood that desperate people will turn to crime and other activities that threaten maritime security,” he added.

Guterres said: “We must involve everyone with a stake in maritime spaces. From coastal communities to governments and regional groups. To shipping companies, flag registries, the fishing and extraction industries, insurers and port operators.

“Let’s take action to support and secure maritime spaces, and the communities and people counting on them.”

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered a Pentagon review of the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has long been a target of Republican criticism.

“I have concluded that we need to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that accountability for this event is met and that the complete picture is provided to the American people,” Hegseth wrote in a memo.

A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations, to include but not limited to, findings of fact, sources, witnesses, and analyze the decision making that led to one of America’s darkest and deadliest international moments,” the memo said.

“This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people and the warfighters of our great Nation,” it added.

The US withdrawal saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Afghan forces, forcing the last American troops to mount an evacuation from Kabul’s airport that got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of days.

On August 26, 2021, a suicide bomber targeted crowds of people on the perimeter of Kabul airport who were desperate to get on a flight out of the country, killing more than 170 people, among them 13 American troops.

Joe Biden, who was US president during the withdrawal, defended the decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces.

That paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after their first government was toppled by American forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks.