Coalition flays UN Yemen rights mission as mandate is extended
JOINT STATEMENT CRITICISES FAILURE TO ADOPT A UNIFIED DRAFT RESOLUTION ON YEMEN
The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Iran-aligned Al Houthi militia alongside government forces yesterday strongly criticised the UN Human Rights Council for its failure to adopt a unified draft resolution on Yemen.
The Council yesterday voted by 21 votes to 8 in favour of prolonging an inquiry into human rights in Yemen. The coalition had earlier said any extension should be a matter for the Yemeni government, which announced on Thursday that it was ending cooperation with the UN investigation into suspected war crimes during more than three years of conflict.
In a joint statement yesterday, the UAE, Saudi Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen said that the failure to adopt a unified draft resolution “comes in light of the absence of cooperation between the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg and Ireland, and their insistence on not taking into account the legitimate concerns of the concerned countries”.
The coalition has taken issue with the August 28 report by the panel, which accused both government forces and Al Houthi militia of violations, but said that coalition air strikes had caused “most of the documented civilian casualties” and voiced “serious concerns about the targeting process”. ■
The joint statement said that “the report’s inaccuracies and gaps cannot be ignored, and its descriptions clearly contradict the Security Council resolutions on Yemen”.
It added: “The report was not based on the consent of the concerned state and does not respect the country’s sovereign right to express its consent to cooperate with international resolutions that deal directly with the human rights situation on its territory in spite of the keenness and cooperation shown by the Yemeni delegation and the delegations of the concerned countries to reach a consensus formula”.
In earlier comments released to AFP through the Saudi information ministry, the coalition said the report “failed to mention Iran’s role in Yemen, and the countless violations perpetrated by the Al Houthis, both against the Yemeni people and against the kingdom” of Saudi Arabia. “These violations include targeting the kingdom using Iranian ballistic missiles — aimed at civilian and religious sites,” it said.
The coalition stated its commitment to submit its draft resolution under item 10 of the Human Rights Council’s agenda, in which it calls on the High Commissioner’s Office to continue providing technical assistance and capacity-building for the legitimate Yemeni government and the Yemeni National Commission of Inquiry.
Meanwhile, in New York, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, participated in the Yemen Quartet ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.
The meeting was also attended by Adel Al Jubeir, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, British Foreign Secretary, and David Hale, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs.
The foreign ministers emphasised their support for the UN efforts led by the Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths. They also discussed Iran’s destabilising influence in Yemen and the region as a whole.