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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 2:46
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 DECEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
14 DECEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Wide shot, ambassadors
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Yemen:
“This is no small achievement, made possible first and foremost by the commitment of the parties, and the credit goes to them. I was extremely impressed by their dedication. All made concessions. All engaged. In-depth and at length. Intensively and in good faith.”
5. Wide shot, ambassadors
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Yemen:
“The United Nations is asked to monitor the compliance of the parties to these commitments. I am sure this Council will want to address this requirement. A robust and competent monitoring regime is not just essential. It is also urgently needed.”
7. Wide shot, Security Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Yemen:
“Very deliberately the arrangements agreed particularly as regards governance, and the temporary arrangements of governance in Hudaydah, intend to set no precedent for the future. They are time bound. They do not confer any new sense of legitimacy or sovereignty. This is a humanitarian stop gap to save lives, and we hope turn the tide of war towards peace.”
9. Med shot, Yemeni ambassador
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“A terrible tragedy is unfolding in Yemen. And it is getting worse. Millions of people are starving, sick and desperate. They have one message for the world: this war needs to stop.”
11. Wide shot, Yemeni ambassador addressing Security Council
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations:
“For this reason, what was agree shall remain ink on paper until it is implemented on the ground as reflecting their sincere intentions, which would pave the way towards other positive steps regarding the rest of the issues.”
13. Wide shot, Security Council
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations:
“The outcome of the consultations in Sweden represents a serious step towards building confidence and bodes well to achieving a peace to which our great Yemeni people aspire. The Yemeni Government has and continues to offer all concessions, no matter how difficult, to achieve a sustainable peace based on the agreed terms of reference because we believe that war is created by fools and peace is made by the courageous.”
15. Wide shot, Security Council
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths told the Security Council today (14 Dec) that the agreement reached in Sweden over Hudaydah is a “humanitarian stop gap to save lives” which he hoped could “turn the tide of war towards peace.”
Speaking via teleconference Griffiths said the agreements came into force yesterday upon publishing of the documents. He stressed that this was “no small achievement, made possible first and foremost by the commitment of the parties, and the credit goes to them.” He added, “I was extremely impressed by their dedication. All made concessions. All engaged. In-depth and at length. Intensively and in good faith.”
The Special Envoy noted the role that UN chief Antonio Guterres played in the process, adding that his meeting at the G20 in Argentina with the Saudi Crown Prince ensured the last-minute clearances needed to move the 50 injured to Muscat days before the talks. He said Guterres’s subsequent visit to the consultations for the vital last 24 hours were instrumental in making the agreements happen.
Griffiths told the Council that the agreements include phased but rapid mutual withdrawals of forces from both the Hudaydah ports and the city. He said the UN was asked to monitor “the compliance of the parties to these commitments” adding that he was sure the Council would “want to address this requirement.” He underscored that a “robust and competent monitoring regime is not just essential, it is also urgently needed.” He said that Gen. Patrick Cammaert has been contacted to lead the monitoring component of the agreement.
The Special Envoy that the agreement on Hudaydah was an outlier and arrangements agreed “very deliberately” intend to set no precedent for the future. He said, “They are time bound. They do not confer any new sense of legitimacy or sovereignty. This is a humanitarian stop gap to save lives, and we hope turn the tide of war towards peace.”
He said parties have also reached a mutual understanding to ease the situation in Taiz with the prospect of the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow the safe passage of goods and people across the front lines, the reduction of the fighting in the governorate, the deployment of demining operations and the release and exchange of prisoners.
Griffiths added that, before arriving in Sweden, the parties had already agreed to the establishment of a joint committee to provide and plan for the mutual release of all prisoners. He said that we hope, with the ICRC in the lead, for a mass exchange in mid-January of as many as 4,000 prisoners.
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock briefed the Security Council on the humanitarian crisis that he witnessed first-hand in Yemen. He said, “A terrible tragedy is unfolding in Yemen. And it is getting worse. Millions of people are starving, sick and desperate. They have one message for the world: this war needs to stop.”
Lowcock said the progress made in Sweden was a sign which, the first time in a long time, show that perhaps things might get a bit better. He underscored however that this week’s success must not lead to complacency adding that working towards peace must be accelerated. He said in the meantime, millions of Yemenis still desperately need assistance and protection.
The Humanitarian chief said the Integrated Phase Classification analysis for Yemen, which was published last week, decisively confirm Yemen’s descent toward famine. More than 20 million Yemenis, two thirds of the population, are now food insecure; 10 million of them are severely food insecure more than twice the number of four years ago. He said nearly a quarter of a million Yemenis were literally on the brink of starvation.
Yemeni ambassador Abdullah Al-Saadi said his Government was filled with hope and optimism after the agreements in Sweden but was also very cautious as a result of its previous experience in agreements signed with Houthi rebels. He added that 75 agreements had been signed since the beginning of the conflict which the other side did not implement.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations:
“For this reason, what was agree shall remain ink on paper until it is implemented on the ground as reflecting their sincere intentions, which would pave the way towards other positive steps regarding the rest of the issues.”
Al-Saadi said the outcome of the consultations in Sweden represented “a serious step towards building confidence and bodes well to achieving a peace to which [the] great Yemeni people aspire.” He added that the Yemeni Government “has and continues to offer all concessions, no matter how difficult, to achieve a sustainable peace based on the agreed terms of reference because [it] believes that war is created by fools and peace is made by the courageous.”
