The printer on the third floor of the United Nations annex in New York warmed up at nine on Wednesday morning. It produced three copies of a document dated 14 April 2015. A clerk struck out the year with a biro and sent the pile upstairs.
That is the Security Council's whole response to this week's Houthi missile strike on Riyadh's international airport, where dozens were reported hurt as passengers waited to board. The Council has decided that drafting a new statement on Yemen would be, in its own words, duplication of effort.
One sees the logic. The old text expressed grave concern, urged restraint and called for a political process. All three remain in stock. Down the coast, government-allied forces say they are retaking the Bab al-Mandab strait, and a strait being retaken is not a sentence anyone has needed to write fresh since 1956.
"We ran the numbers," a Council spokesman said. "Our statements on Yemen, Suez and Hormuz differ by an average of three words, and one of them is the name of the strait. Reprinting is simply honest."
