Local Editor
Saudi Arabia and their allies have delayed a British plan to forge a peace deal to end the war in Yemen.
According the American CBS news website, the Saudis, backed by ally Kuwait, have stalled plans by the U.K. to start forging a ceasefire agreement which would allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into the country.
"Saudi Arabia is actively lobbying against the U.N. resolution," a Security Council diplomat involved in the negotiations told CBS News on Monday.
The U.K.'s Ambassador to the U.N., Karen Pierce, circulated a U.N. draft resolution earlier Monday to the 10 elected members of the Security Council, after the five permanent members (U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China) negotiated the draft.
CBS News revealed that the draft resolution calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities for areas around the port of Hodeida, effective on the day it is approved. It sets a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove barriers to the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the regime of former president Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Some 16,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
Source: Yemenwatch.net
