Saudi Arabia hosts meeting to reconstruct Yemen
UN warns of displacement in Yemen
RIYADH, May 10, (Agencies): Saudi Arabia on Wednesday hosted a preliminary meeting on efforts to rebuild Yemen, with Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmad Obeid bin Daghr in attendance.
The meeting in the Saudi capital has been called to examine whether regional and global organizations are ready to face the herculean task of rebuilding a nation battered by years of war.
In a speech to open the meeting, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammad Al-Jadaan underlined genuine commitment and an earnest desire to help the Yemeni people.
He also said that he was sanguine that the meeting would help align views in regards to what needs to be done to address worsening food security in Yemen, adding that long-term goals need to be set to rebuild the impoverished nation.
Meanwhile, the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Hafez Ghanem said that he was elated that the international community is resolved to restore prosperity in Yemen.
Similarly, Yemen’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Dr Mohammad Al-Saadi thanked Saudi Arabia and all nations that have provided aid to his country in this critical juncture.
The Yemeni minister also lamented the political and security conditions in Yemen, saying they have been on a downward spiral since 2015.
The meeting brought together senior officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as regional and international financial organizations.
Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh is open to negotiations with rival Saudi Arabia, two years into a deadly war between Saleh’s Houthi rebel allies and the Saudi-backed government.
“We have no choice but dialogue,” Saleh said at a meeting of his General People’s Congress party in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday.
“We are ready to go to Riyadh, Khamis Mushit, Muscat or elsewhere to start dialogue and to reach an understanding,” Saleh said, referring to cities in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Oman.
Saleh however reiterated his rejection of the government of internationally recognised President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and said Saudi Arabia would have to find “new leadership”.
Members of Saleh’s circle have been meeting unofficially with Saudi delegates for weeks in Berlin, a Yemeni government official told AFP Wednesday.
The Yemeni leader also said he hoped to “form an alliance with Iran that would serve the interests of Yemen”.
Shiite-dominated Iran is a key supporter of Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the main regional rival of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.
Saleh, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, has repeatedly said he was open to talks with Saudi Arabia.
But he ruled out mediation by UN special envoy Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed, who aims to resume stalled peace talks by the end of May, accusing him of bias.
Government spokesman Rajeh Badi told AFP Ould Sheikh Ahmed is currently in Riyadh for talks on the Yemeni crisis, which the UN estimates has killed more than 7,700 people since March 2015.
A UN official warned Wednesday that up to half a million people could be displaced as conflict escalates and the humanitarian situation worsens in Yemen’s southwestern Taez province, mainly in Hodeida.
“Between 100,000 and half a million people could be displaced as the conflict and humanitarian situation continue to worsen,” said Shabia Mantoo, Yemen spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR.
“The humanitarian situation alone continues to worsen even without the conflict intensifying,” Mantoo told AFP from the Red Sea city of Hodeida.
Fears of large-scale displacement are exacerbated by rampant food insecurity in Hodeida that the UNHCR says has reached critical levels.
Mantoo said more women and children were begging in the streets of Hodeida, where people displaced mainly from southwestern Mokha and the city of Taez have for two years sought refuge.