United Nations — Gulf countries are making a push for UN sanctions to be imposed on the leader of Yemen's Houthi rebels and the son of the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a draft resolution that could come up for a vote this week. Jordan circulated the draft resolution prepared by Gulf states to the Security Council. The draft resolution demands that the Houthis withdraw from Sanaa and all other areas seized since 2013 and slaps an arms embargo on the Houthi leaders and their allies. The resolution asks the 15-member council to add Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi and ousted president's eldest son, Ahmed, to a sanctions list, imposing a global travel ban and an assets freeze on the two men. The council imposed targeted sanctions in November on the ousted president and two Houthi military commanders, Abd Al-Khaliq Al-Houthi and Abdullah Yahya Al-Hakim, to punish the Houthis for seizing Sanaa two months earlier. Diplomats said the draft resolution could come up for a vote this week. The resolution also “calls upon member states, in particular states neighboring Yemen, to inspect ... all cargo to Yemen” if they have reasonable grounds to believe it contains weapons. Jordan and the Gulf Arab states had been negotiating with the council's veto-wielding powers — the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China — for more than a week before circulating a draft text to all 15 council members on Monday. — Agencies
