GCC proposes conference on Yemen reconstruction
UAE PLEDGES DH73.5M DONATION TO SECURE HUMANITARIAN NEEDS IN WAR-TORN COUNTRY
Leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states wrapped up their two-day summit in Riyadh with a statement saying they are “preparing an international conference on the reconstruction of Yemen” after a political solution to the conflict.
Leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman spoke of “a plan to rehabilitate the Yemeni economy to integrate it into the Gulf economy.”
The UAE’s Ministry of International Cooperation and Development announced that the UAE will donate Dh73.5 million to secure humanitarian needs of people in Yemen. The grant will be distributed to a number of organisations; Dh36.7 million to the International Red Cross, Dh22.2 million to the World Food Programme, Dh 7.34 million to Unicef and Dh7.34 million to other international organisations.
Since the crisis, the UAE’s total aid to Yemen currently stands at Dh1.62 billion, during which Emirati humanitarian organisations provided aid for the people of Yemen and for construction of infrastructure in affected cities.
On Syria, the GCC leaders affirmed their support for a political solution and the outcome of the opposition meeting held in Riyadh. The meeting brought together more than 100 factions, including rebel groups, in an effort to unite their ranks ahead of proposed peace talks with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s government.
The United States wants to see countries with a stake in the Syrian conflict meet under United Nations auspices in New York on December 18 to push for a ceasefire.
“It’s not locked in yet, but the meeting in Saudi Arabia appears to be very constructive at this point, and we need to wait for the results of that conference,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said he hoped the various factions can come up with a common vision for Syria while insisting Al Assad should either leave or be forcibly removed from power.
Al Jubeir said the Riyadh convention aimed to put the opposition in a “stronger position” by agreeing on shared principles for future peace negotiations. He added that he wanted to remove any opportunity for critics to accuse the Syrian opposition of being too fragmented and lacking a vision for the future.
Al Jubeir said that the kingdom hopes for better relations with Iran, but added that Tehran’s policies have hindered diplomatic ties. “Iran is playing a negative role in most regional issues,” he said.
Gulf Arab leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia yesterday reiterated their call for a political solution to the wars in Yemen and Syria, but the kingdom’s foreign minister went a step further and criticised Iran’s role in those conflicts.
Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir told reporters after the two-day summit in Riyadh concluded that “Iran is playing a negative role in most regional issues”.
He added that he met only for “a few minutes” with his Iranian counterpart in Vienna last month on the sidelines of a meeting to discuss ways to end the nearly five-year Syrian war, in which Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing opposite sides of the conflict.
Riyadh is also hosting a Syrian opposition summit that gathered more than 100 factions, including rebel groups, in an effort to unite their ranks ahead of proposed peace talks with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s government.
Al Jubeir said that the kingdom hopes for better relations with Iran, but added that Tehran’s policies have hindered diplomatic ties.
Regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has played out in conflicts in Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military intervention against Al Houthi militants who are backed by Iran.
Conference for Yemen
However, the official statement from the six-nation GCC over the meeting refrained from directly criticising Iran, but instead condemned terrorism and called on Yemen’s warring sides to reach a desirable political solution. The summit called for an international reconstruction conference for Yemen after any deal to end its civil war, which has killed 6,000 people and caused widespread damage to the country’s economy and infrastructure.
The call came in a statement by GCC leaders at the conclusion of a summit meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh. It was read out by GCC SecretaryGeneral Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani.
Yemeni warring parties are due to gather in Switzerland next week for United Nationssponsored peace talks.
“The council (GCC) members called for an international conference for Yemen reconstruction after the parties reach the aspired political solution,” Al Zayani said in the statement broadcast on Saudi state television. He said such a programme would be done in accordance with a “practical programme to rehabilitate the Yemeni economy and to ease its merger into the Gulf economies”.
Yemen has been ravaged by nearly nine months of civil war.
Automatically renewed
A seven-day ceasefire is expected to take effect when the peace talks commence on December 15. Yemen’s new foreign minister, appointed by Hadi last week, said on Wednesday the ceasefire would be automatically renewed if the Al Houthis abided by it.
Hadi said on Monday he had asked the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Al Houthis to begin a ceasefire on December 15 in a bid to end months of fighting.
Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, United Nations special envoy to Yemen, said that Hadi’s government and Al Houthis were committed to the peace process laid down by the Security Council last April.
Resolution 2216 called on all sides to end the violence and demanded that Al Houthis withdraw from all areas seized since the conflict began in September last year.
Yemeni resistance forces backed by air strikes and ground forces from a mainly Gulf Arab coalition, have been locked for nine months in a civil war with Al Houthis, who still control the capital Sana’a and other cities.
Hadi and his Gulf allies accuse Al Houthis of carrying out a coup and advancing Iranian influence in the Arab world.