NEW YORK CITY: Any addition to the list of sanctions on Yemen must pass through the Security Council’s 2140 Committee, which includes representatives of all 15 council members. Individuals or entities can only be designated for sanctions if there is a consensus among the committee members.
Any request to add to the list must first be picked up by a council member, most often the UK as the “penholder” on the Yemen file, and then weighed against criteria set out in Security Council Resolution 2140, which targets acts that threaten peace, security or stability in Yemen, including any obstruction of the political transition. The committee’s Panel of Experts gathers evidence and conducts an analysis that would normally underpin any new listing.
This process was once again in the spotlight on Tuesday when Yemen’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdullah Al-Saadi, urged the council to update the sanctions list to include individuals accused of obstructing the political transition. He named as a chief offender the southern separatist leader Aidarus Al-Zubaidi, who faces accusations of high treason at home.
Al-Saadi told council members that Sanaa’s internationally recognized government formally requested the addition to the sanctions regime of people involved in undermining state institutions, blocking the political process, or imposing unilateral measures by force.
His government has already taken its own steps against figures accused of rebellion, corruption and serious rights violations, he added, as he accused Al-Zubaidi of fueling internal divisions, undermining state institutions and obstructing efforts to confront the Houthis.
Sanaa, he added, remained committed to resolving the situation in southern Yemen through comprehensive dialogue carried out under Saudi auspices, but warned that actions taken outside of state authority threatened the country’s stability and unity.
The sanctions list, which has been maintained since 2014, when the civil war in Yemen began, remains dominated by Houthi commanders and members of the late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s inner circle. Al-Zubaidi and other figures associated with the Southern Transitional Council have so far escaped formal designation, even though Sanaa has previously raised the issue at the Security Council.
Diplomatic sources told Arab News that divisions among the members of the council complicate such requests.
Those divisions were evident when council members last renewed the sanctions regime, through Resolution 2801 in November 2025, which extended travel bans and assets freezes until November 2026. Even this routine renewal only passed with abstentions from China and Russia.
Moscow argued that sanctions were intended primarily to advance efforts to achieve a political settlement and should not be used for “narrow political purposes.” Beijing stressed the need to resolve the issue through political and diplomatic means instead.
The source also noted that any state that wants to add new names to the sanctions list must build a case that is solid enough to satisfy the 2140 Committee’s designation criteria and then get all 15 members to agree that the threshold has been met. In practice, this is “one of the harder consensus exercises the council undertakes,” the source added.
This “structural friction” is what has historically slowed the addition of any new listings tied to the question of southern Yemen, regardless of how direct the Yemeni government has been in naming names.
Al-Saadi also pressed the council to take action to choke funding and prevent weapons from reaching the Houthis, describing the militia as a growing regional and international security threat and accusing it of acting as a military arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He called for full implementation of existing resolutions, and for those who threaten Yemen’s peace efforts to be held accountable.
