His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Yemen, Khalid bin Hussein al-Yamani; and His Excellency Dr
Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Secretary General of the GCC; inaugurated a
high-level conference on Yemen titled “The Challenges of the Political
Solution, Humanitarian Work, Restoring Stability and Reconstruction”. The
conference was organized by the general secretariat of the GCC, in
collaboration with Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Friday, September
21, at the Four Seasons hotel in New York, USA. Representatives of 19 countries
sponsoring the political process, as well as international and regional
humanitarian and development organizations, participated in the conference.
In his opening address, Dr Al-Zayani expressed his gratitude
and appreciation for the Yemeni government and the general secretariat of the
GCC for their efforts to organize this important conference in New York, which
came on the heels of the high-level conference, held last August in Riyadh
under the title of “References for the Political Solution for the Yemeni
Crisis.”
The Secretary General stressed the importance of this
conference, considering the complications facing the attempts to end the Yemeni
people’s suffering by arriving at a politically peaceful solution to the crisis
in Yemen, that would keep Yemen secure, stable and sovereign, and end the
suffering of the Yemeni people from the increasingly difficult humanitarian
situation.
His Excellency said the Houthi militias were still hurdling
efforts for a fair political solution through military escalation manifested in
bombing residential areas in cities, threatening navigation in the Red Sea and
continuing to fire ballistic missiles at Saudi cities.
He also outlined the financial support provided by GCC
countries to fund the UN response plan for relief in Yemen for this Year,
indicating that the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
provided US$500 million each, while Kuwait provided US$250 million.
Dr Al-Zayani said that GCC countries have focused on the
phase after restoring order, security and peace in Yemen. This was evident in
the orders of the GCC countries’ leaders in the council’s 36th summit in
December 2015, which called for preparations for an international conference on
the reconstruction of Yemen and for setting a program to rehabilitate Yemeni
economy and facilitate its integration with the Gulf region’s economy. Moving
forward, the GCC general secretariat conducted two workshops for key donors and
the United Nations to hold a conference on the reconstruction of Yemen, once
peace is achieved.
The Secretary General said it was unfortunate that the
Houthi militias refused to go to Geneva and chose to hurdle UN efforts in the
last round of peace talks, called for by the UN Special Envoy, Martin
Griffiths, in Geneva on September 6. He added that they gave weak excuses,
which highlighted the militias’ disregard for the suffering of the Yemeni
people, while Yemen’s legitimate government sent its delegation to Geneva considering
the necessity of a political solution to end the crisis.
His Excellency affirmed that reaching a political solution
for the Yemeni crisis requires the UN Security Council and the international
community to apply serious pressure to vitalize the political process in Yemen,
compel the coup forces to respond to the will of the Yemeni people and adhere
to international resolution on this issue by seriously engaging in UN-sponsored
peace talks without any preconditions and putting the interests of the Yemeni
people above all else.
Dr Abdul Latif Al Zayani stressed the GCC's steadfast stance
in supporting the legitimacy in Yemen and GCC’s support for all efforts exerted
by the United Nations to reach a political solution to end the Yemeni crisis in
accordance with the Gulf Initiative and its executive mechanism, the outcomes
of the Comprehensive National Dialogue Conference and Security Council
Resolution 2216.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister also made a speech in which he
stressed that what Yemen is going through today is the result of the Houthi
militias' coup against the political transition of power’s process which
followed signing of Gulf initiative by the political parties in November 2011
which came to meet Yemeni people’s aspirations for change and reform while
preserving Yemen's unity, security and stability.
He said that the Houthi militias resorted, since 2014, to
military escalation with the intention of a deliberate coup on the state’s
authority and acquiring of governmental and military institutions to implement
Iran's expansionist agenda in the region. He added that since the beginning of
the Yemeni crisis, the UN Security Council has united and issued a number of
resolutions that affirmed the unity, sovereignty and independence of the Yemeni
territories and support of the legitimacy of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi
in accordance with the GCC initiative and its executive mechanism and the
outcomes of the Comprehensive National Dialogue Conference.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister affirmed that the Yemeni
government has always been and will continue to extend its hand for a
sustainable peace based on the three references. He called for the
international community to unite to press the Houthi militias to comply with
the Yemeni people's desire, to confront Iran's terrorist agenda in the region,
and to achieve lasting and sustainable peace in Yemen.