Presented by Sven Jürgenson, Permanent Representative
Thank you, Mr. President!
I thank Special Envoy Griffiths and Under-Secretary-General Lowcock for their briefings on the political and humanitarian situation in Yemen. I also thank Ambassador King for her briefing as Chair of the Yemen sanctions committee.
The situation in Yemen remains deeply worrying. Unfortunately during the past month the security situation in Yemen has deteriorated due to another round of hostilities at the northern frontlines. We call on all parties to the conflict for an immediate cessation of hostilities. The violence is causing additional suffering to the Yemeni people who are already facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Thousands of additional families have been forced to flee from their homes. Both of these issues – the hostilities and the dire humanitarian conditions – need to be addressed as a priority without any further delays.
We are extremely worried about continuous attacks on civilian infrastructure. There can be no justification for bombing hospitals, as recently happened in Al Jafra and Al Saudi, which left 15 000 people with limited access to medical care. Also, the airstrike last Saturday in Al-Jawf province killed at least 31 civilians. Such indiscriminate attacks are a clear breach of international humanitarian law. We call on all parties to the conflict to keep protection of civilians as a priority.
Secondly, the continuous restrictions to distributing humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people are another breach of international humanitarian law. Intimidation of humanitarian workers, obstructing their work and even arresting aid workers must stop immediately. It is most worrying to hear from the aid agencies and donors that they might be forced to scale down or cut aid distribution in certain areas. The indication that the Houthi authorities would cancel the 2 percent tax on every humanitarian project would be a step in the right direction, as such a tax is against the principles of humanitarian aid.
It is also more and more worrying that the United Nations officials have not been granted access to the Safer oil tanker. Access must be provided to prevent an environmental disaster in the Red Sea.
Besides these mostly negative tendencies, I am nevertheless glad to hear about a few positive developments as well. We welcome the announcement of an agreement on a large-scale exchange of prisoners, as stated by the Prisoners’ Exchange Committee last Sunday. This would be an important humanitarian measure and a step towards implementing the Stockholm Agreement. We also welcome the beginning of „mercy flights“ from Sanaa. We urge the parties to keep allowing these flights to continue so Yemeni patients could receive the treatment they need.
Hopefully these much-needed confidence building measures can also help move towards resuming formal political talks with the participation of the Yemeni government. It is clear that the solution to this conflict can only be political. We call on the parties to begin discussions on a comprehensive political solution under the auspices of the United Nations without delay or preconditions. We support the efforts of Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in this regard.
We also urge the Government of Yemen and the Southern Transitional Council to overcome the obstacles in implementing the Riyadh agreement, which is crucial in order to move towards a comprehensive political settlement in Yemen.
Thank You!