UNSC Urges Pause in Saudi Military Attacks against Yemen
Local Editor
The United Nations Security Council [UNSC] has called for another humanitarian pause in Saudi Arabia’s military attacks against Yemen, saying there are currently 12.5 million food insecure people in the impoverished country, as it said in a statement on Tuesday.
The 15-member council released a statement on Tuesday, describing the situation in Yemen as "grave." Yemen has been being targeted by Saudi military attacks since March 26.
The UNSC called for "a further humanitarian pause" in order to allow aid "to reach the Yemeni people" who are in urgent need of assistance.
Additionally, the UN’s World Food Program [WFP] said on Tuesday that there are currently 12.5 million food insecure people in Yemen, some two million more than the time when the crisis began in the country in March.
The members of the UNSC also expressed disappointment with the postponement of UN-brokered peace talks on Yemen, which had been scheduled for May 28 in the Swiss city of Geneva but were delayed. The decision to delay the peace talks was made after a request by the government of fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and some other countries.
Moreover, the statement by the UNSC called on Yemeni parties to participate in talks "without preconditions and in good faith."
It also urged the parties "to resume and accelerate" the talks with the aim of brokering a "consensus-based political solution" to the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
In a recent statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week [May 26], he expressed concern about the postponement of the planned initiative on a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Yemen.
Ban urged the end of the conflict in the Yemen, saying that, "The only durable resolution to the crisis in Yemen is an inclusive, negotiated political settlement."
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Ansarullah, Mohamed Abdel-Salam, had said recently on May 21 that the Houthis would participate in the peace talks if Saudi Arabia stopped its military aggression against the Yemeni people.
The conflict in Yemen has claimed the lives of approximately 2,000 people since March 19, according to the UN.
Saudi Arabia is continuing its brutal airstrikes against Yemen despite the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the impoverished country.
Saudi Arabia has also blocked aid to Yemen.
The US-led Saudi military aggression against Yemen started on March 26 -- without a UN mandate -- in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
