Hadi asks donors and UN to help

YEMENI LEADER WANTS TOUGH STANCE ON THOSE SHUNNING TALKS

Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi called on the United Nations and donors to support his country’s political transition, as UN Security Council members made an unprecedented visit to Sana’a on Sunday. Hadi called on the Council members to regard those refusing to take part in upcoming national reconciliation talks as undermining the country’s political transition.

Such a move could put Yemen’s secessionist Southern Movement within the scope of a 2012 Security Council resolution, which threatened sanctions against obstructive forces in the nation. The Southern Movement, which seeks independence or autonomy for the former state of Southern Yemen, is the only major political force refusing to take part in the National Dialogue Conference. Southerners have complained of marginalisation and abuses by the authorities.

Britain’s UN representative Mark Lyall Grant, speaking at a news conference in Sana’a after talks with President Hadi, warned what he called a minority against spoiling reconciliation efforts. Witnesses said thousands of Yemeni troops backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters were deployed across Sana’a as the ambassadors arrived for the one- day trip. Grant said the visit was the first to Yemen by the Security Council and the first it had made for five years to the Middle East.

“We have noticed that a minority are trying to obstruct the political process,” he said through a translator, adding that under UN Security Council Resolution 2014 the council had the power to take steps against those who blocked reconciliation.