UN Security Council votes to extend sanctions on Yemen's Houthis for nine months

The UN Security Council on Wednesday extended for nine months an asset freeze and travel ban targeting a dozen citizens of Yemen, mainly top members of the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group, over the ongoing conflict there.

The short Council resolution, adopted unanimously, does not modify the sanctions regime already in place - it simply sets November 15 as the new end date for the measures.

The panel of experts tasked with managing the sanctions saw its mandate extended until December 15.

The Council also reaffirmed the arms embargo, which has targeted the Houthis for the past year. That measure has no expiration date.

Council members discussed the situation in Yemen behind closed doors on Wednesday.

At the last meeting on the issue in January, which was public, the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said he was encouraged by what he called an intensification of diplomatic efforts to arrange a new truce in the eight-year war in Yemen.

Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, has been devastated since 2014 by the conflict pitting the Houthis against pro-government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

A truce that began on April 2 last year expired on October 2.