GARGASH: POLITICAL SOLUTION KEY FOR YEMEN
Coalition support for UN envoy’s progress on peace talks in Sweden
The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has affirmed the Arab Coalition’s support for Yemen peace talks, which were announced by the UN on Friday as the Houthi rebels resumed attacks in Hodeidah.
Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council that Yemen’s warring parties had agreed to talks after confidence-building measures are taken, including the coalition’s agreement to allow injured rebel fighters to leave the country for treatment.
But the issue of prisoner exchanges still had to be resolved, he said.
Yemen’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ahmed bin Mubarak, yesterday said that the government supported any proposed confidence-building measures proposed by Mr Griffiths, including a prisoner swap.
Mr bin Mubarak said he hoped the Houthis would show up to negotiations with a serious intent to consider the trust-building measures.
Meanwhile, UAE minister of state Dr Anwar Gargash praised the UN envoy for his progress.
“Strongly supportive of the mission of Martin Griffiths and progress he is making,” Dr Gargash said on Twitter.
“Political solution is key to addressing humanitarian situation on the ground. Hope that all parties will participate in good faith in the next round of talks in Sweden.
“In the meantime, the Arab Coalition will continue to assist the government of Yemen in keeping humanitarian supplies flowing, stabilising the currency and in planning for post-conflict development.”
David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme, in his briefing on Yemen to the Security Council said apart from aid, “an economic infusion of substantial liquidity” was needed to avert a humanitarian crisis.
Mark Lowcock, UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, praised the UAE and Saudi for their donation to pay teachers’ allowances.
The two coalition members are the biggest donors to the UN’s Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan this year, contributing more than half of the $2.9 billion (Dh10.65bn).
The UAE has also spent more than $4bn on rehabilitation and welfare initiatives for Yemeni citizens between April 2015 and September this year.
Meanwhile, a truce in Hodeidah, introduced in anticipation of peace talks, was broken by heavy rebel shelling in which three children were killed.
Col Mamoon Al Mahjami of the Al Amalikah Brigades said the Houthis attacked government forces and civilians in the Kilo 16 near Hodeidah and in the 7 July area of the city.
“They kept shelling the whole day on Friday using artillery and mortars and carried on mining the approaches to the ports,” Col Al Mahjami said.
“They pushed military reinforcements into the city and posted new fighters in the residential areas and stationed hundreds of snipers on the rooftops of the buildings.”
A resident of the 7 July neighbourhood in eastern Hodeidah said three girls were killed and three men wounded when a Houthi mortar shell hit their home on Friday night.
Others said the rebels marked the walls of homes vacated by residents so that newly arrived fighters from Sanaa and the northern provinces could take up positions there.
Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to attend peace talks in Sweden and the UN special envoy to the country said he was willing to accompany the Houthi delegation from Sanaa if necessary.
Addressing the Security Council on Friday, Martin Griffiths thanked the Saudi-led coalition for agreeing to the conditions needed for consultations and said it marked a critical point in the search for peace.
Minutes later, British ambassador to the UN Karen Pierce said she would circulate a Security Council resolution tomorrow calling for a humanitarian truce.
Ms Pierce said the resolution would enshrine five requests made by the UN’s humanitarian chief including protection of food supplies, injection of money into the economy and for the warring parties to engage in peace talks.
The developments come at the end of a renewed international push to end a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and brought the country to the brink of famine since Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa in 2014.
“This is a crucial moment for Yemen,” Mr Griffiths said. “I have received firm assurances from the leadership of the Yemeni parties that they are committed to attending these consultations. I believe they are genuine and I expect them to continue in that way.”
It is understood that the officials hope the two sides can meet in Stockholm by the end of the year to discuss a framework for talks.
Mr Griffiths, a British mediator, had hoped to be able to announce a prisoner exchange but said talks were continuing on what could be an important confidence-building measure.
“I am grateful to the coalition for agreeing our proposed logistical arrangements and to the coalition and Oman for their agreement to facilitate the medical evacuation of some injured Yemenis out of Sanaa,” he said. Transporting wounded Houthi fighters proved a stumbling block the last time the two sides were due to meet.
Talks were abandoned in September when Houthis said they had not received assurances that their plane would not have to stop in Djibouti for inspection by the Saudi-led coalition.
Mr Griffiths said he was still trying to finalise the logistics for the new round and would travel to Sanaa next week to meet Abdulmalik Al Houthi, the rebel leader.
“I will also be happy to travel myself, if necessary, with their delegation to the consultations if that is needed,” he said.
Aid groups say that Yemen is on the brink of famine and that any worsening of fighting around Hodeidah – the port city through which 80 per cent of the country’s food and aid supplies arrive – would plunge the country further into crisis.
Senior humanitarian officials briefed the Security Council on the latest conditions inside the country.
“This is not on the brink of a catastrophe. This is a catastrophe,” said David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme.
Mr Beasley said tackling the country’s economic crisis was crucial to saving lives.
“You cannot solve the humanitarian crisis in Yemen today with humanitarian response alone,” he said. “It’s now going to require an economic infusion of substantial liquidity. Both are going to be required to avert a famine.”
The Yemeni rial, has lost more than half of its value against the dollar since the start of the war. That has put many basic commodities out of reach of ordinary Yemenis and the Central Bank has struggled to pay salaries.
Mark Lowcock, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator, praised the efforts of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in providing US$70 million (Dh257.1m) to pay the salaries for 135,000 teachers.
“We see this as a best practice, and discussions with potential donors on replicating it for health and sanitation workers, as well as for pensioners, are at an advanced stage,” Mr Lowcock said.
A Saudi grant of $200m in the Central Bank had also strengthened the rial, he said, and may have helped to reduce food prices.
“My foreign secretary was in the region this week because, like Martin and I think the rest of you, we do believe there is a window of opportunity to tackle this man-made crisis in Yemen,” Ms Piece said.
“I just want to emphasise the man-made bit. What men have created, men can resolve. So I think that’s another reason for all possible effort to be put behind the political track.”
I have firm assurances from the Yemeni parties that they are committed to attending these consultations MARTIN GRIFFITHS UN envoy to Yemen