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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 04:42
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 06 MARCH 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
06 MARCH 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg on screen
3. Med shot, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“While a resumption of large-scale ground operations in Yemen has not occurred since the UN-mediated truce of April 2022, military activity continues. I remain concerned by recent reports of shelling, drone attacks, infiltration attempts and mobilization campaigns, more recently witnessed in Ma’rib as well as in other areas such as Al Jawf, Shabwa and Ta’iz. I therefore also reiterate my call on the parties to refrain from military posturing and retaliatory measures that could risk plunging Yemen back into widespread conflict where civilians will again pay the price.”
5. Med shot, Council dais, Grundberg on screen
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“The parties will have to agree on a nationwide cease fire, and a mechanism on how to implement it. They will also have to make difficult but necessary concessions and agree on compromises notably on the difficult economic situation in the country. Finally, let me be clear here, there will have to be a political process that includes a broad spectrum of Yemenis that will allow this conflict to settle once and for all enabling Yemenis to live their life in peace.”
7. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“In order to reach a just and inclusive peace in Yemen, it is essential that the mediation space for the Yemenis under the auspices of the UN is preserved. I remain committed to continuing to carry out my duties in accordance with the mandate given to the Secretary-General by this Council, including convening meetings on a number of pressing issues including for the exchange of conflict-related detainees.”
9. Wide shot, Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher on screen
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“Severe funding cuts have been a body blow to our work to save lives. It is of course for individual countries to decide how to spend their money. But it is the pace at which so much vital work has been shut down that adds to the perfect storm that we face. I have asked our Humanitarian Coordinators, in Yemen and elsewhere, to report by the end of next week on where we will need to cut back most dramatically, and the implications of the tough choices we are making on which lives not to save.”
11. Med shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“The crisis has a disproportionate and devastating impact on women and girls. They have suffered from systematic discrimination and exclusion for decades. In 2021, Yemen ranked second to last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, in 2023 it ranked second to last in the Georgetown Institute Women, Peace and Security index. And there is no sign of progress for them.”
13. Med shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“I am not here to defend programmes, spreadsheets and institutions, but people.”
15. Wide shot, Al-Saadi addressing Council
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“Achieving just, inclusive and sustainable peace in Yemen requires international support and a strategic partnership that translates into practical steps to support the efforts of the Yemeni government to end the coup, to restore state institutions and extend state authority over all Yemeni soil, ensure the safety of the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, transforming it from a source of threat to a bridge of peace as it has been historically.”
17. Wide shot, end of meeting
18. Wide shot, ambassadors at the stakeout podium
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“As climate change impacts grow more severe, the ongoing conflict further limits access to basic resources, the sustainable use and governance, and with wider implications, including for the maritime environment. Escalating resource competition leads to intercommunal and inter-tribal tensions and could adversely impact social cohesion, threatening Yemen's short- and long-term peace and stability. This further shows the complex interplay between climate change, conflict, food and water and security, which directly and or indirectly impact each other. Addressing climate change and environmental degradation, challenges is a stepping stone to peace efforts, offering platforms for collaboration, reconciliation and peacebuilding.”
20. Pan right, ambassadors walk away
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, today (6 Mar) told the Security Council that “in order to reach a just and inclusive peace in Yemen, it is essential that the mediation space for the Yemenis under the auspices of the UN is preserved.
During his briefing to the Council, Grundberg reported that “while a resumption of large-scale ground operations in Yemen has not occurred since the UN-mediated truce of April 2022, military activity continues,” and expressed concern at reports of shelling, drone attacks, infiltration attempts and mobilization campaigns witnessed in Ma’rib as well as in other areas such as Al Jawf, Shabwa and Ta’iz.
He reiterated his call on the parties “to refrain from military posturing and retaliatory measures that could risk plunging Yemen back into widespread conflict where civilians will again pay the price.”
Grundberg said, “the parties will have to agree on a nationwide cease fire, and a mechanism on how to implement it. They will also have to make difficult but necessary concessions and agree on compromises notably on the difficult economic situation in the country.”
He stressed that “there will have to be a political process that includes a broad spectrum of Yemenis that will allow this conflict to settle once and for all enabling Yemenis to live their life in peace.”
In his briefing to the Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said, “severe funding cuts have been a body blow to our work to save lives.”
Fletcher said, “individual countries to decide how to spend their money. But it is the pace at which so much vital work has been shut down that adds to the perfect storm that we face.”
He told the Council that in Yemen and elsewhere, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will need to cut expenses “dramatically,” and evaluate “the implications of the tough choices we are making on which lives not to save.”
Fletcher pointed out that “the crisis has a disproportionate and devastating impact on women and girls” who have suffered “from systematic discrimination and exclusion for decades.”
He said, “I am not here to defend programmes, spreadsheets and institutions, but people.”
Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi for his part said, “achieving just, inclusive and sustainable peace in Yemen requires international support and a strategic partnership that translates into practical steps to support the efforts of the Yemeni government to end the coup, to restore state institutions and extend state authority over all Yemeni soil, ensure the safety of the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, transforming it from a source of threat to a bridge of peace as it has been historically.”
Before today’s meeting Danish Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen, read a joint statement on behalf of France, Greece, Guyana, Panama, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and her own country Denmark, signatories of the Joint Pledges related to Climate, Peace and Security on Yemen.
Lassen said, “as climate change impacts grow more severe, the ongoing conflict further limits access to basic resources, the sustainable use and governance, and with wider implications, including for the maritime environment. Escalating resource competition leads to intercommunal and inter-tribal tensions and could adversely impact social cohesion, threatening Yemen's short- and long-term peace and stability. This further shows the complex interplay between climate change, conflict, food and water and security, which directly and or indirectly impact each other. Addressing climate change and environmental degradation, challenges is a stepping stone to peace efforts, offering platforms for collaboration, reconciliation and peacebuilding.”
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