ADEN — Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi said Thursday that the Yemeni state would not retreat from its goal of restoring state institutions and extending its authority across the country, warning against attempts to turn the Bab Al-Mandab Strait into “another Hormuz” and Yemen into a platform for geopolitical pressure serving Iran.Al-Alimi made the remarks during a meeting with European Union Ambassador to Yemen Patrick Simonnet and Dutch Ambassador Jeannette Seppen, where they discussed developments in Yemen, regional developments and European support for the country.He briefed the European officials on the latest Houthi escalation, particularly around Bab Al-Mandab and the western coast fronts in Taiz province.Al-Alimi said the government did not initiate the latest round of escalation, accusing the Houthis of returning to hostilities, including attacks on civilians, displacement camps, the port of Mokha and civilian facilities.He said Yemen, by defending Bab Al-Mandab, its coastline and territorial waters, was not only protecting its sovereignty and security but also helping safeguard international security and one of the world’s most important maritime corridors for trade, energy supplies and food shipments.Al-Alimi called for a more effective international partnership to strengthen the Yemeni state’s ability to protect the strategic waterway.He linked the Houthi escalation to Iran’s broader pressure strategy, saying Tehran was seeking to shift the cost of international pressure onto countries in the region by threatening energy facilities, the Red Sea and supply chains and turning its dispute with the international community into a wider regional and global economic crisis.Al-Alimi urged the international community not to treat the parties as equally responsible for the escalation.“Whoever started the escalation must be named, and whoever attacks must bear responsibility for the escalation and its consequences,” he said.He called on the European Union, United Nations and donors to provide urgent assistance to displaced people and support local authorities.Al-Alimi also called for stronger measures to prevent the smuggling of weapons, technology and components with military applications to the Houthis and for the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions.He said economic, humanitarian and development support for the Yemeni state was essential to strengthening stability, warning that “peace based on a weak state while militias retain their weapons and the decision to wage war is merely a truce until the next round.”