Council members said they look forward to implementation of recent agreement by both sides to visit each other’s prisons and release 887 detainees They also called on all who donated to Safer oil tanker salvage mission to provide remaining $34m needed to help prevent environmental disaster NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned recent Houthi escalations of the conflict in Yemen, including an attack on senior government officials in Taiz. Members urged the Iran-backed militia to halt the provocations and “prioritize the Yemeni people.” A government soldier was killed and two wounded in the besieged city of Taiz on March 25 when an explosives-laden Houthi drone targeted a convoy in which military leaders, including Defense Minister Mohsen Al-Daeri, were traveling. A number of soldiers were also killed or injured in other incidents last month as the Houthis launched a series of assaults on government troops in the district of Hareb, south of Marib province, where they captured a few villages, resulting in damage to properties and the displacement of families. In a joint statement, members of the Security Council condemned the attacks and once again encouraged all those involved in the war to step up their efforts to resolve the conflict through peaceful means, and to protect civilians in line with the requirements of international humanitarian law. They expressed “strong support” for efforts to reach a comprehensive ceasefire agreement, and “inclusive Yemeni-Yemeni political talks” under the auspices of the UN special envoy for Yemen and based on Security Council resolutions. In addition, council members welcomed the recent agreement in Geneva, following 10 days of negotiations, in which the government and the Houthis agreed to release 887 detainees as part of a prisoner swap deal. Both sides agreed to visit each other’s detention facilities, grant the delegations full access to all detainees during those visits, and to meet again in May to discuss further prisoner swaps. The Security Council said it looks forward to the agreement being implemented during the holy month of Ramadan, and called for additional “confidence-building measures to work towards a political settlement and, ultimately, easing the suffering of Yemenis.” Members also reiterated their support for UN’s ongoing efforts to prevent a catastrophic spillage from the derelict Safer oil tanker and called on all donors, including those in the private sector and international community, to provide the remaining $34 million needed to undertake the emergency salvage operation. In early March, the UN announced it had purchased a ship capable of holding more than a million barrels of oil that will be removed from the Safer. The storage vessel has been moored in the Red Sea off the Yemeni coast with little or no maintenance since the conflict in the country began more than eight years ago, and fears have been growing for some time that it might begin to leak or break up, causing a massive environmental damage. The Security Council once again highlighted the importance of “timely implementation of the project in order to prevent an economic, environmental and humanitarian disaster in the Red Sea and beyond.”