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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 03:47
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 14 FEBRUARY 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
14 FEBRUARY 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Hans Grundberg on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“Rising regional tensions linked to the war in Gaza, and in particular the military escalation in the Red Sea, are slowing down the pace of the peace efforts in Yemen. As much as I have tried to insulate the peace process from wider regional dynamics, the reality is that mediation efforts in Yemen cannot be neatly cordoned off. What happens regionally impacts Yemen, and what happens in Yemen can impact the region.”
4. Med shot, Yemen Ambassador
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“While the spotlight is on the Red Sea, I also want to draw your attention to worrying developments inside Yemen. There is a sense of foreboding along several frontlines, with reports of clashes, mobilisations, and casualties, including in Shabwa, Al Jawf, Marib, Saadah and Taiz. I am also concerned about the growing din of public threats to return to fighting. Meanwhile, the scale of economic challenges across the country is simply staggering.”
6. Med shot, US, and UK Ambassadors
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“Escalation in Yemen is a choice. Making that choice comes with a price. A price that would be paid by the Yemenis, an even greater loss of lives and livelihoods. The parties must avoid all actions that risk this outcome. And I am encouraged, Madam President, that in my latest exchanges, I have received assurances that all parties prefer the path to peace.”
8. Wide shot, Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“This year's humanitarian appeal requires 2.7 billion to reach 11.2 million people across Yemen. We've gone down from 4.3 billion ask, to 2.7 billion dollars. As a matter of priority, we urge the international community to augment its efforts to ensure that the World Food Programme and its partners have the resources necessary to urgently resume food distribution in Houthi controlled areas and initiate a retargeting and registration exercise. Without sufficient resources, we may see a sharp deterioration of the food security situation in some areas in the coming months.”
10. Med shot, US Ambassador Robert Wood speaking
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Wood, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs, United States:
“In response to attacks on US naval vessels, the United States has taken necessary and proportionate measures in the exercise of its inherent right of self-defence, as described in letters provided to the Council on January 12th, January 26th, and February 6th. As we indicated in our letters, these strikes, taken in self-defence, aim to disrupt and degrade the Houthis ability to continue their reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.”
12. Med shot, Yemen Ambassador Abdullah al-Saadi speaking
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“We applaud the decision taken by the United States of America to inscribe the Houthi militias as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group. We call for this categorization to be taken into account in order to end their violations and to end the crimes they perpetrated against the Yemeni people, so that these militias, abandoned violence abandoned terrorist initiatives, and so that they will no longer pose a threat to regional Yemeni peace and security.”
14. Wide shot, end of briefing
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, today (14 Feb) said, “rising regional tensions linked to the war in Gaza, and in particular the military escalation in the Red Sea, are slowing down the pace of the peace efforts in Yemen.”
Grundberg said, “what happens regionally impacts Yemen, and what happens in Yemen can impact the region.”
The Special Envoy told the Council that inside Yemen, “there is a sense of foreboding along several frontlines, with reports of clashes, mobilisations, and casualties, including in Shabwa, Al Jawf, Marib, Saadah and Taiz.”
He expressed concern about “the growing din of public threats to return to fighting,” as well as the scale of economic challenges across the country, which he said are “simply staggering.”
Grundberg said, “escalation in Yemen is a choice. Making that choice comes with a price. A price that would be paid by the Yemenis, an even greater loss of lives and livelihoods.”
The parties, he said, “must avoid all actions that risk this outcome.”
In her briefing to the Council, the Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Edem Wosornu, noted that this year's humanitarian appeal for Yemen requires 2.7 billion US dollars “to reach 11.2 million people across Yemen” compared to 4.3 billion US dollars in 2023.
Wosornu urged the international community “to augment its efforts to ensure that the World Food Programme and its partners have the resources necessary to urgently resume food distribution in Houthi controlled areas and initiate a retargeting and registration exercise.”
Without sufficient resources, she said, “we may see a sharp deterioration of the food security situation in some areas in the coming months.”
United States Ambassador Robert Wood told the Council that “in response to attacks on US naval vessels, the United States has taken necessary and proportionate measures in the exercise of its inherent right of self-defence, as described in letters provided to the Council on January 12th, January 26th, and February 6th.”
As indicated in those letters, Wood said, “these strikes, taken in self-defence, aim to disrupt and degrade the Houthis ability to continue their reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.”
For his part, Yemen Ambassador Abdullah al-Saadi applauded the decision taken by the United States to inscribe Houthi militias as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group.
Al-Saadi called for this categorization “to be taken into account in order to end their violations and to end the crimes they perpetrated against the Yemeni people, so that these militias, abandoned violence abandoned terrorist initiatives, and so that they will no longer pose a threat to regional Yemeni peace and security.”
Today’s was the first Council open meeting on Yemen with Grundberg since August 2023.
