UN / YEMEN
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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 03:52
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 JUNE 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
13 JUNE 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot shots, Security Council, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“I urge Ansar Allah to respect the rights of Yemenis under international law and release all UN and NGO personnel immediately and unconditionally and to refrain from the arbitrary detention of civilians. The United Nations is present to serve Yemenis. Such arbitrary detentions are not the expected signal of an actor who is seeking a mediated solution to conflict. In addition, I am concerned about judgements by the Ansar Allah on the 1st of June, sentencing 45 individuals to death.”
4. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“I have continued my engagements toward a ceasefire and inclusive political process that allows the warring parties to work out their differences through peaceful means. But since last December, when the parties agreed to a set of commitments to be operationalized through a UN roadmap, the regional situation has severely complicated this process. Ever since the escalation in the Red Sea, I have aimed to make sure that no one loses sight of the ultimate objective: a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen. However, instead of making tangible progress towards protecting commitments made and finalizing of the roadmap, the parties have reverted to a zero-sum game.”
6. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“The announcement last March by Ansar Allah that it had brought into circulation its own one hundred-rial coin, to address disintegrating one hundred Yemeni Rial banknotes, challenged the monetary authority of the Central Bank of Yemen. The Central Bank responded in April by demanding that banks relocate their headquarters from Sana’a to Aden and announced punitive measures against banks that refused to do so. In reaction, the Central Bank branch controlled by Ansar Allah banned all banks with headquarters in Aden from operating in their area.”
8. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“These developments have potentially catastrophic ramifications. They threatened to further fragment and weaken Yemen's already struggling economy. They undermine the private sectors ability to conduct their functions and financial transactions necessary for the import of food and other essential goods, further limiting the availability of basic commodities and of course driving up prices. And above all, they are disrupting the flow of remittances, on which so many families in Yemen depend. All these factors will likely deepen poverty, worsen food insecurity and malnutrition and increase reliance on humanitarian assistance.”
10. Wide shot, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi addressing Council
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“We reaffirm the fact that the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni Government have fully taken into account the decisions in the Yemeni bank to protect the Yemeni banking system to end the monetary distortions and to counter inflation, as well as to respect the principle of good governance and to improve the oversight of banks as well as the foreign bank transactions, as well as respecting the issues is related to the trade transactions with to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”
12. Zoom out, end of Council session
13. Wide shot, ambassadors at the Security Council stakeout
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United Kingdom:
“We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained and urge the Houthis to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian and United Nations personnel. We are gravely concerned at the significant and rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen and underline that it is essential for humanitarian actors to have unimpeded access to civilian populations.”
15. Med shot, Al-Saadi at the podium
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“The Yemeni Government has repeatedly warned of the danger of turning a blind eyes to Houthis violations, criminal practices, blackmail methods and persecution of humanitarian organizations to serve their political agenda, harness humanitarian aid to serve their security and military agenda, especially at a time when more than 18 million are in dire need humanitarian assistance.”
17. Pan right, Al-Saadi walks away
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, today (13 Jun) urged Ansar Allah to “respect the rights of Yemenis under international law and release all UN and NGO personnel immediately and unconditionally and to refrain from the arbitrary detention of civilians.”
13 UN personnel, in addition to five staff members of international NGOs and many more from national NGOs
and civil society were arbitrarily detained by Ansar Allah last week and remain in incommunicado detention.
Grundberg said, “the United Nations is present to serve Yemenis. Such arbitrary detentions are not the expected signal of an actor who is seeking a mediated solution to conflict. In addition, I am concerned about judgements by the Ansar Allah on the 1st of June, sentencing 45 individuals to death.”
The Special Envoy said, “I have continued my engagements toward a ceasefire and inclusive political process that allows the warring parties to work out their differences through peaceful means. But since last December, when the parties agreed to a set of commitments to be operationalized through a UN roadmap, the regional situation has severely complicated this process.”
He said, “instead of making tangible progress towards protecting commitments made and finalizing of the roadmap, the parties have reverted to a zero-sum game.”
In particular, this is most apparent in the economy, he noted, as “the announcement last March by Ansar Allah that it had brought into circulation its own one hundred-rial coin, to address disintegrating one hundred Yemeni Rial banknotes, challenged the monetary authority of the Central Bank of Yemen.”
Grundberg told the Council that this led to the Central Bank branch controlled by Ansar Allah “banning all banks with headquarters in Aden from operating in their area.”
In her briefing to the Council, the Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Edem Wosornu said these developments in the banking system, “have potentially catastrophic ramifications.”
Wosornu said, “they threatened to further fragment and weaken Yemen's already struggling economy. They undermine the private sectors ability to conduct their functions and financial transactions necessary for the import of food and other essential goods, further limiting the availability of basic commodities and of course driving up prices. And above all, they are disrupting the flow of remittances, on which so many families in Yemen depend.”
All these factors, she said, “will likely deepen poverty, worsen food insecurity and malnutrition and increase reliance on humanitarian assistance.”
Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, in his briefing to the Council said, “we reaffirm the fact that the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni Government have fully taken into account the decisions in the Yemeni bank to protect the Yemeni banking system to end the monetary distortions and to counter inflation, as well as to respect the principle of good governance and to improve the oversight of banks as well as the foreign bank transactions, as well as respecting the issues is related to the trade transactions with to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”
Before the meeting, the United Kingdom’s Ambassador Barbara Woodward, flanked by a group of ambassadors demanded “the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained” and urged the Houthis “to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian and United Nations personnel.”
For his part, Al-Saadi said, “the Yemeni Government has repeatedly warned of the danger of turning a blind eyes to Houthis violations, criminal practices, blackmail methods and persecution of humanitarian organizations to serve their political agenda, harness humanitarian aid to serve their security and military agenda, especially at a time when more than 18 million are in dire need humanitarian assistance.”