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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 04:01
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 12 JUNE 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
12 JUNE 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg on screen
3. Med shot, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“Some colleagues have been detained since 2021, and there were additional detentions in 2025. Their continued imprisonment is shameful. I call again in the strongest terms for their immediate and unconditional release, and I will continue to demand the release at every opportunity I have until they are home with their families.”
5. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“The multiple frontlines across Yemen remain fragile and risk descending into more active fighting. Marib, in particular, remains a cause for concern at this time, with reports of troop movement and occasional flareups, in addition to sporadic activity on other front lines in Al-Dhalea, Hudaydah, Lahj and Ta’iz Governorates. My office continues to monitor frontline developments, engage with military and security officials from all sides, and offer alternatives to a return to full-scale conflict. In the discussions my team has with members of the Military Coordination Committee, we stress the shared responsibility for all actors to step away from confrontation and instead resume discussions on a ceasefire.”
7. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy for Yemen, United Nations:
“We need to build on the recent cessation of hostilities in the Red Sea and provide durable guarantees to the region and the wider international community and ensure the safety of all those using this critical waterway. This effort goes hand-in-hand with our ongoing work towards the roadmap that will help Yemen overcome its current divisions and lead to a comprehensive ceasefire, critical economic measures and an inclusive political process. I will continue to work with the Yemeni parties, the region and the broader international community towards this goal, identifying pragmatic and achievable steps to move and to move forward. The cost of inaction is high in Yemen cannot afford more years of division, economic collapse and human suffering.”
9. Wide shot, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya addressing Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy
Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“A key road between Aden and Sanaa through Adalah was reopened on 29 May after being closed for nearly seven years. This will provide civilian and commercial traffic, a more direct and faster route, reducing travel times by 6 to 7 hours between the two cities and improving access to health care for communities in a number of governorates. This development, supported by the authorities and reflective of community sentiment and initiatives, shows that Yemen is not on a fixed downhill trajectory. With trust in the right tools, there remains hope. All of us here must rise to meet this opportunity with our own commitment and support.”
11. Wide shot, Al-Saadi addressing Council
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“The Yemeni government continues to work on reforming financial, administrative, and economic institutions and we are committed to the five tracks, which are mainly geared at the achievement of peace, ending the coup and maintaining the legal status of the country and the state, combating corruption, enhancing transparency and accountability, institutional, financial and administrative reforms, as well as developing economic sources and ensuring the optimal utilisation of external grants and aid. We confirm our commitment to establish a strategic partnership with all donors, and we appreciate the importance of cooperation to achieve our joint goals so that we can overcome the current crisis.”
16. Wide shot, end of Council session
One year since the detention of dozens United Nations, national and international NGOs, civil society organizations, and diplomatic missions’ personnel in Yemen, Special Envoy Hans Grundberg today (12 Jun) called “in the strongest terms for their immediate and unconditional release."
Addressing the Security Council via video teleconference, Grundberg noted that, “some colleagues have been detained since 2021, and there were additional detentions in 2025.”
He said, “their continued imprisonment is shameful.”
The Special Envoy said, “the multiple frontlines across Yemen remain fragile and risk descending into more active fighting,” and expressed particular concern for Marib, “with reports of troop movement and occasional flareups, in addition to sporadic activity on other front lines in Al-Dhalea, Hudaydah, Lahj and Ta’iz Governorates.”
He stressed “the shared responsibility for all actors to step away from confrontation and instead resume discussions on a ceasefire.”
Following the recent ceasefire agreement between the United States and Ansar Allah, Grundberg said, “we need to build on the recent cessation of hostilities in the Red Sea and provide durable guarantees to the region and the wider international community and ensure the safety of all those using this critical waterway.”
He said, “this effort goes hand-in-hand with our ongoing work towards the roadmap that will help Yemen overcome its current divisions and lead to a comprehensive ceasefire, critical economic measures and an inclusive political process.”
For her part, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya, said that over 17 million people – or nearly half of Yemen’s population – are estimated to be acutely hungry.
She told the Council that “a key road between Aden and Sanaa through Adalah was reopened on 29 May after being closed for nearly seven years,” providing civilian and commercial traffic, “a more direct and faster route, reducing travel times by 6 to 7 hours between the two cities and improving access to health care for communities in a number of governorates.”
This development, Msuya said, “shows that Yemen is not on a fixed downhill trajectory,” and added that “with trust in the right tools, there remains hope.”
Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi told the Council that the government “continues to work on reforming financial, administrative, and economic institutions” and is committed to “the five tracks, which are mainly geared at the achievement of peace, ending the coup and maintaining the legal status of the country and the state, combating corruption, enhancing transparency and accountability, institutional, financial and administrative reforms, as well as developing economic sources and ensuring the optimal utilisation of external grants and aid.”
