United Nations special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths warned on Tuesday that the ballistic missile strikes by the Iran-backed Houthi militias towards Saudi Arabia may impede peace efforts in the war-torn country. He told the UN Security Council that a possible sharp escalation from the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and intensified fighting could "in a stroke, take peace off the table." Urgent and creative ways must be found "to diminish the chances of these game-changing events, upsetting and derailing the hopes of the great majority of Yemenis." The Saudi-led Arab coalition on Monday warned it was ready to inflict a "painful" response if new attacks are carried out against the Kingdom. Riyadh said last week it had shot down two Iran-supplied drones in the south of the kingdom and intercepted ballistic missiles fired from rebel-held parts of Yemen, the latest in a series of similar incidents. Griffiths cited the increased missile launches, intensified military operations in northwest Saada governorate, ongoing air strikes and movements of forces in the Hodeidah region as worrisome developments. He revealed that he will present a new peace plan within two months. "My plan is to put to the council within the next two months a framework for negotiations," he said in his first council report since taking over as special envoy in February. Griffiths briefed the council after traveling to the region for talks in Riyadh, Sanaa and other key capitals on prospects for re-launching peace talks which he insisted to the council "can be done." US Ambassador Nikki Haley thanked Griffiths, a British national, for taking on the Yemen mission, but stressed the new peace effort must address Irans military support to the Houthis. While backing the new peace efforts, the Security Council cannot be "afraid to call out the Houthis and their Iranian patrons by name in future resolutions," said Haley. Russia in February vetoed a British-drafted resolution strongly supported by the United States that would have put pressure on Iran over its failure to block supplies of missiles to the Houthi militias. Iran has repeatedly denied arming the Houthis in Yemen, despite claims by the United States and Saudi Arabia that the evidence of an arms connection is irrefutable.