Local Editor
Members of the UN Security Council have confirmed their full support to the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.
Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya TV reported that it had seen a draft awaiting press statement of the UN Security Council prepared by Britain and put it under the silent procedure, on Sunday.
The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen will present his briefing to the Security Council on June 17 on developments in the situation in Yemen and the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement reached by the two parties to the conflict, the resigned regime of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement last December in Sweden.
The draft statement appealed to the parties to the conflict in Yemen to engage constructively and continuously with the Special Envoy and to continue to implement the Stockholm Agreement, including showing full respect for the cease-fire in the province of Hodeida.
It also noted that members of the Security Council were positive about the initial progress made by the parties towards the implementation of the first phase of the redeployment in Hodeida.
Late last May, Hadi sent an official letter to Guterres talking about unprecedented, unacceptable desecrations committed by Griffiths, whom the resigned regime accused of siding with the Houthis following his latest briefing to the UNSC.
The former president asked the UN chief for sufficient guarantees that those violations would be reviewed and not repeated, accusing the UN envoy of seeking to "provide guarantees for Houthi militias to stay in Hodeida under UN umbrella."
But the UN SC implicitly rejected Hadi request, saying his organization acts as neutral mediator and has no intention to establish international management in Hodeida.
In a letter to Hadi, Guterres added that he and his envoy Martin Griffiths "take seriously the legitimate concerns" raised by the resigned regime.
Yemen has been battered by a five-year armed conflict between the resigned Hadi regime backed by the Saudi-led coalition and the popular Houthi revolutionaries.
The conflict has caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
More than 24 million people, more than 80% of the country's population, are in need some form of humanitarian or protection assistance, including 8.4 million people who don't know where their next meal will come from, according to the UN.
And there are nearly 2 million children suffering from acute malnutrition, the UN said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
