S.arabia, allies criticise biased UN resolution

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and key allies have denounced as biased a resolution that renewed a Un-backed investigation of alleged war crimes in Yemen, where Riyadh leads a coalition battling Houthi rebels.

The condemnation was issued in a joint statement released late on Friday by the Riyadh-backed Yemen government, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.

It comes after the UN Human Rights Council voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen.

“We are left with a resolution which is biased, and which clearly contradicts the clear mandate laid out by the United Nations Security Council,” said the joint statement.

Rights council members voted in favour of the resolution in Geneva on Friday by 21 to 8, with 18 abstentions.

Saudi Arabia and its allies bemoaned what they said was the council’s “failure to achieve consensus.”

“In particular, we are disappointed that certain member states failed to consider the real and legitimate concerns of those states who are most affected by the situation in Yemen,” their joint statement said.

The resolution showed “disregard for Yemen’s sovereign right to give its consent to co-operate with international resolutions that deal directly with the human rights situation on its own territory,” it added.

On the eve of the vote, the Yemeni government had announced it was ending its co-operation with the UN human rights mission, accusing it of bias in an August report on alleged war crimes.