Yemen risks being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East that keeps intensifying and could spiral out of control, the U.N. special envoy for the Arab world’s poorest nation said Tuesday.

The country’s Houthi rebels have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started a year ago.

Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that regrettably, Yemen is part of the escalation — and he warned that repeated attacks on international shipping by its Houthi rebels ‘have significantly