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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 5:54
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 14 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Council President Evangelos Sekeris striking gavel
4. Wide shot, Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg addressing Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“Allow me to begin by welcoming the announcement on the 6th of May, or the cessation of hostilities between the United States of America and Ansar Allah. This step represents an important and necessary de-escalation in the Red Sea and in Yemen following the resumption on the 15th of March of US airstrikes against targets in Ansar Allah controlled areas.”
6. Wide shot, Grundberg addressing Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“Events in the recent weeks, however, have also served as stark reminders that Yemen is ensnared in the wider regional tensions. The attack carried out by Ansar Allah on Ben-Gurion airport on the 4th of May, and the subsequent strikes by Israel on Hodeidah port, Sanaa airport and other locations in response, represent a dangerous escalation, and the threats and attacks regrettably continue.”
8. Wide shot, Grundberg addressing Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“It may seem, Mr. President, to some, that amidst so much upheaval and so much mistrust, a political process is an unrealistic and naive goal. I am here to argue that this is not the case. The fact is that the parties have already committed to the basis of what should be the beginning of a political process in Yemen. A nationwide ceasefire, measures to address urgent economic and humanitarian issues, and an inclusive political process.”
10. Wide shot, Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher addressing Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“We're running out of time and resources. Yemen's 2025 humanitarian response plan is barely 9 percent funded. Less than half of what we received at the same time last year. And these shortfalls, of course, have very real consequences.”
12. Wide shot, Fletcher addressing Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Cuts are as I've described, biting hard. People are dying. And here in Yemen, as elsewhere, we are determined to save as many lives as we can with the money that we have. Over the past two months, we've overhauled our response in Yemen, aligned with the global humanitarian reset that I set out in March. We are substantially reducing our operational costs. So, more money can be spent on saving lives.”
14. Med shot, United States Ambassador Dorothy Shea addressing Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Dorothy Shea, Acting Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“The Houthis capitulation marks a success for the US approach. Whether strikes continue is up to the Houthis. As President Trump said, the Houthis don't want to fight anymore. They are exhausted. The strikes killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders.”
16. Med shot, Grundberg and Fletcher
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Dorothy Shea, Acting Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“All member states have an obligation to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 2216. Iran has enabled Houthi attacks with military, logistical and intelligence support. This Council must not tolerate Iranian defiance of its resolutions and should impose consequences on sanctions violators, using the tools at its disposal. The most recent Houthi attacks against Israel serve as a stark reminder of the threat that they pose to regional stability.”
18. Wide shot, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi addressing Council
19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“We regret to say today that all this keenness, all these regional and international efforts and the effort of the United Nations through its Special Envoy to Yemen, which are all aimed at ending this crisis, were met with the intransigence and rejection of the terrorist Houthi militias supported by the Iranian regime. Those militias sought to thwart all efforts and initiatives during the past years, experience proved that these militias do not believe in peace or dialog.
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen: Wide shot, Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi addressing Council
“While we appreciate the efforts made to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Yemen, we call on the international community and the United Nations to strengthen support for the humanitarian response plan in Yemen and fill the existing funding gap, especially in light of the increasing humanitarian needs.”
21. Wide shot, end of Council session
22. Wide shot, Grundberg at the stakeout podium
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“I will also take this opportunity to urge Ansar Allah to act responsibly and release all detained and NGO civil society and diplomatic mission’s personnel, immediately and unconditionally. Their prolonged detention is undermining all efforts to support Yemen's most in need.”
24. Wide shot, ambassadors at the stakeout podium
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Evangelos C. Sekeris, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Greece:
“We condemn the arbitrary detention and abuses in the custody of all humanitarian workers, UN personnel, diplomatic staff, political activist, journalists, civil society organization leaders, and human rights defenders in Houthi controlled areas and we call for the immediate and unconditional release. We also condemn reprisals against women human rights defenders. We commend the valuable contribution of women civil society organization in peacebuilding, including safeguarding humanitarian access to the most vulnerable, evacuating civilians from conflict affected areas, and advocating for the opening of roads and crossings, and the release of prisoner.”
26. Pan right, ambassadors walk away
Briefing the Security Council today (14 May), Hans Grundberg, the Special Envoy for Yemen, welcomed the announcement on 6 May of a cessation of hostilities between the USA and Ansar Allah and said that this step represents “an important and necessary de-escalation in the Red Sea and in Yemen” following the resumption, on 15 March, of US airstrikes against targets in Ansar Allah-controlled areas.
The Special Envoy said that “events in recent weeks, however, have also served as stark reminders that Yemen is ensnared in the wider regional tensions.”
The attack carried out by Ansar Allah on Ben Gurion Airport on 4 May, he said, as well as the subsequent strikes by Israel on Hudaydah Port, Sana’a Airport, and other locations in response, “represent a dangerous escalation, and the threats and attacks, regrettably, continue.”
Amidst “so much upheaval and so much mistrust,” Grundberg said, it may seem that “a political process is an unrealistic and naive goal.”
He stressed that "this is not the case," and said, “the fact is that the parties have already committed to the basis of what should be the beginning of a political process in Yemen. A nationwide ceasefire, measures to address urgent economic and humanitarian issues, and an inclusive political process.”
Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told Council members that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating, and those most in peril are the country’s children. Half of Yemen’s children – or 2.3 million – are malnourished, he said, and 600,000 of them are severely so.
Fletcher warned that Yemen’s 2025 humanitarian response plan is “barely 9 percent funded,” and these shortfalls “have very real consequences.”
He said cuts are “biting hard” and “people are dying.”
Fletcher insisted that humanitarians remain “determined to save as many lives as we can with the money that we have” and have “substantially reducing our operational costs. So, more money can be spent on saving lives.”
United States representative Dorothy Shea told the Council that “the Houthis capitulation marks a success for the US approach,” and stressed that “whether strikes continue is up to the Houthis.”
She quoted US President Donald Trump saying “the Houthis don't want to fight anymore. They are exhausted,” and noted that “the strikes killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders.”
Shea said, “all member states have an obligation to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 2216. Iran has enabled Houthi attacks with military, logistical and intelligence support. This Council must not tolerate Iranian defiance of its resolutions and should impose consequences on sanctions violators, using the tools at its disposal. The most recent Houthi attacks against Israel serve as a stark reminder of the threat that they pose to regional stability.”
Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi for his part said, “we regret to say today that all this keenness, all these regional and international efforts and the effort of the United Nations through its Special Envoy to Yemen, which are all aimed at ending this crisis, were met with the intransigence and rejection of the terrorist Houthi militias supported by the Iranian regime. Those militias sought to thwart all efforts and initiatives during the past years, experience proved that these militias do not believe in peace or dialog.”
Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi said, “while we appreciate the efforts made to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Yemen, we call on the international community and the United Nations to strengthen support for the humanitarian response plan in Yemen and fill the existing funding gap, especially in light of the increasing humanitarian needs.”
Talking to reporters outside the Council, Grundberg urged Ansar Allah “to act responsibly and release all detained and NGO civil society and diplomatic mission’s personnel, immediately and unconditionally. Their prolonged detention is undermining all efforts to support Yemen's most in need.”
Earlier, before the meeting, Greek Ambassador Evangelos C. Sekeris, President of the Council during the month of May, on behalf of the signatories of the Shared Commitments on Women Peace and Security (WPS) said, “we condemn the arbitrary detention and abuses in the custody of all humanitarian workers, UN personnel, diplomatic staff, political activist, journalists, civil society organization leaders, and human rights defenders in Houthi controlled areas and we call for the immediate and unconditional release. We also condemn reprisals against women human rights defenders. We commend the valuable contribution of women civil society organization in peacebuilding, including safeguarding humanitarian access to the most vulnerable, evacuating civilians from conflict affected areas, and advocating for the opening of roads and crossings, and the release of prisoner.”
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