On
Yemen, ICP Asks UK
of Saudi Airstrikes Leading to
Starvation, Qs for SG
Guterres
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 22 – Days after Saudi
Arabia received yet more
praise from the UN for its
role in Yemen comes reports to
Inner City Press of a
double-tap airstrike by Saudi
jets in Sana'a: "two
airstrikes targeting a
gathering funeral for women in
Arhab district / Sanaa, then
targeted first responders with
another airstrike... People
there are still trying to take
out dead bodies from the
location."
The
airstrikes have been on ports
as well. On February 22, Inner
City Press asked UK Ambassador
to the UN Matthew Rycroft of
the role of these airstrikes
in the humanitarian crisis in
Yemen on which still
relatively new Secretary
General Antonio Guterres was
set to speak at 2 pm. Video
here. From the UK
transcript:
Inner City Press:
Do you think in Yemen the air
strike campaign contributes to
the humanitarian crisis? The
bombing of ports, etc...?
Amb Rycroft: In all four of
these cases, there is a
mixture of factors. Clearly in
Yemen, there can be no
military solution. There must
be a political settlement, and
we strongly support the UN in
seeking to achieve that, and
we support the UN in ensuring
humanitarian access to the
people who need it in Yemen.
The
sudden focus on hunger in
Yemen, without mentioning that
the UN under Ban Ki-moon took
the Saudi-led coalition off
its own Children and Armed
Conflict annex, is
problematic. We will have more
on this.
On February
13, Inner City Press asked the
UN's deputy spokesman Farhan
Haq about it. Video
here, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
I wanted to ask you about
Yemen. There are reports
in Yemen of what's… what's
being described as a
double-tap airstrike by Saudi
jets in the Arhab district of
Sana'a, in which one airstrike
was dropped and then another
one on top of first
responders. One, I
wanted to know, what is the
ability of the UN system in
the country to verify or not
this attack? And also,
an you say a little bit more
about what the
Secretary-General said when he
was in Saudi Arabia? I
read what was e-mailed out,
and it seemed to be mostly
praising Saudi Arabia's role
in the region. Did he
express some concern about
these continued airstrikes?
Deputy Spokesman: He has
conveyed his concerns about
the violence in Yemen, and he
has been discussing this
broadly throughout his trip to
the region with a variety of
interlocutors.
Question: Right, but if
this just happened after his
trip to Oman and after he said
he's fully supporting the
envoy despite this letter from
the people that are in control
of Sana’a, do you have any
response? Were any commitments
made to him to not do
double-tap airstrikes on the
capital of Yemen?
Deputy Spokesman: I
wouldn't characterize any
commitments made during the
talks that we've had. We
certainly have made our
concerns known, and along
those lines, what we are
trying to do is focus, with
the parties in the region and
outside of it, to make sure
that there can be a return to
a cessation of hostilities and
a return to talks among the
Yemeni parties. This is
what Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
is continuing to work on with
the support of the
Secretary-General, and we hope
that the talks that he's had
in recent days can help
further that cause.
Back on
February 10 Inner City Press
asked Guterres' deputy
spokesman about the letter, video
here, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
there's a letter from those in
control in Sana'a and in the
north to António Guterres
saying that Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed should not be extended
and should be relieved of his
duties. And I wanted to
know, this issue and the
issues that are being raised
of a sense of bias and of kind
of Saudi control over the
mediation, is it something
he's going to bring up on his
trip to Saudi Arabia, and is
he going to meet with those
actually in control on the
ground in Yemen or not?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
first of all, we… as I
mentioned, he will meet with
the King, the Crown Prince,
and Deputy Crown Prince of
Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Regarding the criticisms,
we're, of course, aware of…
the different envoys at
different peace processes from
time to time get
criticized. And one of
the most common bits of
criticism is the one side or
another accusing them of being
biased towards the other
side. We stress the
impartiality of the work of
all of our envoys, and the
Secretary-General does support
the work of Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed.
Inner City Press: Has he
gotten this letter? I
mean, are you aware of this
letter?
Deputy Spokesman: We're
aware of the letter.
The letter
among other things says envoy
IOCA "ignored the illegality
of the decision of the
outgoing central bank to
transfer from Sanaa to Aden
and change the board. What is
the reason for the
interruption salaries of about
1,000,300 thousand employees
for more than six months and
no salary, interruption
continues even now."
(On
February 9, Inner City Press
asked the International
Monetary Fund about the issue
and got this
response.)
Has
Guterres read the letter? Will
he, before his visit to Saudi
Arabia? Watch this site.
After
another Saudi-led Coalition
bombing of a school in Yemen,
Inner City Press on January 12
asked Ambassador Matthew
Rycroft of the UK, the
penholder on Yemen in the UN
Security Council, what the
Council intends to do. Video
here; transcript below.
On
February 8 Inner City Press
asked French Ambassador
Francois Delattre about the
removal of the Saudi-led
coalition from the UN's Yemen
Children and Armed Conflict
annex, for money. Video
here.
Delattre said to
ask Leila Zerrougui - but she
is leaving the CAAC mandate by
March 31, as Inner City Press
first reported. So where does
the issue stand.
At least
Delattre answered. On February
7, Inner City Press asked the
UK about the case against it
for its Saudi Arms sales, video here. We will keep
following that case, and the
UN's wayward envoy.
With UN
holding an event about CAAC on
February 8 in the Trusteeship
Council Chamber, Inner City
Press was banned from staking
it out by the ongoing censorship
order of the UN's Cristina
Gallach, unable to
simply walk down the hallway
like others. Gallach's "UN
News Center" published a long
story
about CAAC without once
mentioning Saudi. This is
today's UN: corruption and
censorship.
After the
Security Council met about
Yemen for the first time in
three months on January 26,
Inner City Press asked Council
President Skoog if in the
closed door consultation human
rights violations in the
Saudi-led Coalition's bombing
had been discussed. Not
really, it seems. How is that
possible? Tweeted
video here.
Here's the
top of the bland "Elements to
the Press" which Skoog read
out for the Security Council
before Inner City Press asked
about the bombing:
"Members of the
Council were updated on the
critical humanitarian
situation in Yemen, including
widespread and acute
malnutrition on the verge of
famine.
The members called on all
parties to allow safe, rapid,
and unhindered access for
humanitarian supplies, and to
facilitate access for
essential imports of food,
fuel, and medical supplies
into the country and
throughout. Members also
called for allowing access for
journalists to report on the
situation.
Members expressed serious
concern at the devastating
humanitarian impact of the
conflict on the Yemeni people
and the risk that it will
continue to deteriorate in the
absence of a peace agreement."
Or in the face of
continued airstrikes? In the
Council's open meeting, Hadi's
representative Khaled Hussein
Mohamed Alyemany said again
and again that Hadi must be
returned to power in Sana'a.
At what cost? And for what
purpose?
At the
January 26 UN noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked former
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric what Ban had
done, after he took the
Saudi-led Coalition off the
UN's Children and Armed
Conflict annex for Yemen. UN transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
on Yemen, a freedom of
information request has found
that the UK Ministry of
Defense is tracking over 250
allegations of humanitarian
law violations by the
Saudi-led coalition.
Since Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon, when he took them off
the list, said that this
process would continue in
communications with the
Saudis, number one, has this
process involved getting
information from other Member
States that are themselves,
because they sell arms to
Saudi Arabia, tracking
them? And, two, what…
what did the Secretary-General
do between when he said that
he was going to continue to
look at this and the day that
he left? Was…
Spokesman: I think when…
I said as soon as I have more
to add on this process, I will
do so.
Inner City Press: But
does the process involve
specifically asking the UK for
this…?
Spokesman: I can't
answer to the details of that.
From the
January 12 UK transcript:
Inner City Press:
On Yemen, the president just
said that they are looking for
a date, and you know this
school was bombed, what’s the
plan of the Council this month
as pen holder to actually have
a meeting or have the envoy
come. What’s happening?
Amb Rycroft:
Well, we are very keen to hear
back from Ismail Ould Ahmed.
He has our full support. As
you know, there is a draft
Security Council Resolution,
which we have drafted which is
sort of out there hovering
over the process and we are
very much in Ismail’s hands in
terms of whether and when it
would be useful to progress
that further here.
Because
essentially what that does is
to get the whole of the
Security Council behind his
roadmap and to push the
parties into a meaningful,
political process.
We haven’t got
that at the moment. There’s a
lot of diplomacy going on
behind the scenes, but what we
don’t have is a really
positive political process
leading towards a political
settlement. And I think all of
us around the Security Council
table, whatever our views on
the ins and outs of the
conflict, we are at least
united on that issue that
there must be a political
settlement.
Meanwhile it seems the UN
envoy Ismael Ould Cheikh
Ahmed, trying to stay in the
job, may brief the Security
Council on January 25.
New UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres has taken over from Ban
Ki-moon, who left amid
indictment of his brother and
nephew for UN-related
corruption, and failures in
Yemen including selling out to
the Saudis.
Inner
City Press asked Guterres about
Yemen at his first stakeout; he
said he'd be an honest broker.
Will he be, more
than in the UN press corps
today?
Ali
Saleh has written to Guterres, see
here, citing previous
meeting and asking to stop the
war and the killing. We'll have
more on this.
On
December 20 Inner City Press
asked UK Ambassador Matthew
Rycroft about Saudi Arabia's use
of UK cluster bombs. Tweeted
video here and hindered
production note.
Inner
City Press first
published the UK
draft resolution,
as credited by
Associated
Press, via Salon, Daily
Mail (UK), Fox
News
***
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