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UN Council votes to send observers to Yemen
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Dec 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The UN Security
Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution that authorizes the
deployment of observers to war-torn Yemen to oversee a fragile truce in the
strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida.
The draft, which was submitted by Britain, had been the subject of tough
negotiations among the 15 council members, and was amended several times
before the vote.
It also endorses the results of UN-brokered peace negotiations in Sweden
last week. Yemen’s warring parties agreed to a ceasefire that took effect
Tuesday and the withdrawal of fighters in Hodeida, a major gateway for aid
and food imports.
The city is a vital lifeline for millions at risk of starvation, and the
ceasefire between Saudi-backed government forces and Huthi Shiite rebels is
seen as the best chance yet of ending four years of devastating conflict.
The agreement also included a planned prisoner swap involving about 15,000
detainees.
The UN Security Council resolution “insists on the full respect by all
parties of the ceasefire agreed” for Hodeida.
It authorizes the United Nations to “establish and deploy, for an initial
period of 30 days from the adoption of this resolution, an advance team to
begin monitoring” the ceasefire, under the leadership of retired Dutch
general Patrick Cammaert.
Saudi Arabia welcomed the resolution which means the Huthis “will lose
their margin of maneuver,” Khalid Manzlawi, the kingdom’s deputy permanent
representative to the UN, said in a statement carried by the official Saudi
Press Agency.
He also thanked Kuwait and Saudi Arabia’s ally the United States “for
reaching the appropriate formula for the resolution, which is in the interest
of the people of Yemen and the maintenance of international peace and
security.”
According to the UN, Cammaert — who served multiple times as a UN
peacekeeper — was expected in the Jordanian capital Amman before heading to
the rebel-held capital Sanaa and Hodeida.
The resolution also authorizes UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to
“submit proposals as soon as possible before December 31, 2018 on how the
United Nations will fully support the Stockholm Agreement as requested by the
parties.”
French ambassador Francois Delattre said the unanimous vote sent a “strong
signal of the council’s unity and engagement” on Yemen, and that it had put
its weight behind the UN-brokered talks.
Diplomats said the UN observer mission could consist of 30 to 40 people,
tasked with ensuring the withdrawal of the warring parties from Hodeida and
the safe passage of humanitarian aid.
The UN said the first members of the mission were already en route to the
region.
The observers will head up monitoring teams made up of government and rebel
representatives, under the auspices of a Redeployment Coordination Committee
headed by Cammaert.
– Food insecurity –
A week ago, following the talks in Sweden, UN envoy Martin Griffiths asked
the Security Council for the quick deployment of observers.
But the negotiations were particularly tough, with Russia at one point
threatening to use its veto if a mention of Iran supporting Huthi rebel
attacks — inserted by the United States — was not removed.
In a compromise, the phrase “further condemning the supply, from Iran and
other actors” of the Huthis became “the supply, from whatever source.”
But in the end, the entire paragraph was scrapped from the final version.
The war in Yemen between the rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo
Mansour Hadi escalated in 2015, when he fled into Saudi exile and the Saudi-
led military coalition intervened.
Since then, the conflict has killed about 10,000 people, according to the
World Health Organization, although human rights groups say the real death
toll could be five times as high.
On December 8, the UN said that as many as 20 million people in Yemen were
“food insecure,” calling the situation the “world’s worst humanitarian
crisis.”
Louis Charbonneau, the UN director for Human Rights Watch, said the
resolution “sends an important message to the suffering people of Yemen that
they haven’t been forgotten.”
Charbonneau also called on the Security Council to consider imposing
“targeted sanctions” on those who violated the laws of war in Yemen,
including “senior Saudi, Emirati and Huthi officials.”
BSS/AFP/ARS/1301 hrs