The U.N. envoy for Yemen is warning that fragmentation of the war-torn Arab nation "is becoming a stronger and more pressing threat" making peace efforts that have been frustratingly slow more urgent than ever.

Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the world cannot underestimate the risks that recent military action in southern Aden and Abyan provinces "pose for the future of the country."

He said implementation of a December agreement on the opening and redeployment of forces from the key port of Hodeida in the north "cannot be a precondition for achieving peace in all of Yemen."

"There is no time to lose," Griffiths said by video from Amman. "The stakes are becoming too high for the future of Yemen, the Yemeni people and the wider region."

-AP