The Southern Transitional Council has seized control of parts of Yemen over the past week, with ambitions to create a “south Arabian state.”

© Fawaz Salman/Reuters

Russia and China abstained in the vote, which provides a legal mandate for the Trump administration’s vision of how to move past the cease-fire to rebuild the war-ravaged enclave after two years of war.

The Trump administration wants the Security Council to adopt a resolution that has the 20-point U.S. plan annexed, effectively making it international law.