Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUN / YEMEN
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 3.07
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 DECEMBER 2011, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT 2011, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Secretariat Building
21 DECEMBER 2011, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press conference
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamal Benomar, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“Progress has been witnessed in Sanaa in these past four days with the removal of barricades and check points and the withdrawal of armed groups from public and private facilities they had been occupying. Serious commitment from all sides will be required to make these inroads to stability a success, and the UN will continue its close engagement and monitor its progress. We want to see a Yemen where the streets belong to the people, not to the militia. We want to see Yemenis able to go about their daily lives and grow their communities where civic leaders are the ones shaping the future of the country, not those with arms”.
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamal Benomar, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“Failure to execute any part of the agreement will obstruct the entire process. The Security Council is following the situation in Yemen closely, indeed the world is watching the peace process in Yemen and there will be consequences for those who think they may derail the peace process.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamal Benomar, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“One of the key decisions of the government, and this is provided for in the agreement, is for the government to come up with a national economic recovery program. Yemenis will need to see change in their daily lives. They need to see more electricity, they need to see more affordable prices for food, they need to see more security in the street and they’ll need more job opportunities, the country has been on the brink of economic collapse so it is very important for the international community to support the new efforts of the national unity government.”
9. Cutaway, Journalist
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamal Benomar, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“Do we expect problems during this transition? Absolutely, there will be lots of problems. There will be lots of ups and downs. There will be lots of obstacles. There will be lots of challenges. The agreement is a first step, but an agreement on a long road fraught with difficulties and I think that this initial period, the first transition, the first period of the transition which is from the signing until early elections are held which is exactly sixty days from today. These sixty days are going to be crucial, period.”
11. Cutaway, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamal Benomar, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“It is public knowledge that throughout Yemen there are areas characterized by lawlessness and this has been in the worry of the international community and it is in this context also that many in the international community started to see the link between instability in Yemen and international peace and security. The new government is going to have a huge challenge which is restabilising government control over the various parts of the country that are lawless now”.
13. Cutaway, journalist
14. Wide shot, press conference ends
The next few weeks will be critical as Yemen seeks to address its political, security and humanitarian challenges, a United Nations (UN) envoy stressed today, adding that the support of the international community will be vital to the transition process.
Jamal Benomar, the Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Yemen, told reporters at a press briefing in New York that serious a commitment from all sides would be required to make the “inroads to stability a success”.
Benomar added that the UN would continue its close engagement and monitor its progress.
He said that the goal is to see “a Yemen where the streets belong to the people, not to the militia. We want to see Yemenis able to go about their daily lives and grow their communities where civic leaders are the ones shaping the future of the country, not those with arms.”
Warring factions in Yemen signed an agreement last month on a transitional settlement under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand over power to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi. A new Government of National Unity was sworn in and presidential elections have been scheduled for 21 February.
Benomar said that failure to execute any part of the agreement “will obstruct the entire process”, adding that the Security Council as well as the international community were following the situation in Yemen “closely”. He said that there would be consequences for “those who think they may derail the peace process”.
He also said that one of the key decisions the government had to follow through within the agreement was to come up with a national economic recovery program.
Noting that the country had been on the brink of economic collapse, he emphasized the importance of the support from the international community to the new efforts of the national unity government.
Commenting on security issues, Benomar said that it was of public knowledge that throughout Yemen there were areas characterized by lawlessness, and that the new government was going to have a “huge challenge” which was restabilising government control over the various parts of the country that are “lawless now”.
Warring factions in Yemen on 23 November reached agreement on a transitional settlement under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand over power to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi. A new Government of National Unity was sworn in on 10 December and presidential elections were been scheduled for 21 February.
