The Daily Star
A robust monitoring regime is urgently needed in Yemen’s Hodeida to oversee compliance by the warring parties with an agreed cease-fire in the region, United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council Friday. Hours after Griffiths’ meeting, fighting broke out on the outskirts of Hodeida, residents said.
One resident told Reuters he could hear the sound of missiles and automatic gunfire in the direction of the eastern 7th July suburb of the Houthi-held city, on whose outskirts Yemeni forces backed by an Arab military coalition have massed.
The Iranian-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemen government of President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi agreed Thursday to stop fighting for Hodeida and withdraw their troops, the first significant breakthrough for U.N.-led peace efforts in five years of conflict.
“A robust and competent monitoring regime is not just essential, it is also urgently needed and both parties have told us they would very much welcome it and indeed depend on it,” Griffiths told the 15-member council, adding that U.N. officials were already planning for such a deployment. Such a monitoring mission needs the backing of the Security Council in a resolution, diplomats said.
Griffiths said retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert had agreed to lead the monitoring component of the agreement, which took effect Thursday when the deal was published. He said Cammaert could arrive in the region within days. “Being present in the field soon is an essential part of the confidence that needs to go with the implementation of this agreement,” Griffiths said.
In a statement by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdom backed “the agreements reached in Sweden in U.N.-sponsored talks between a delegation of Yemen’s legitimate government and the Houthi rebels,” the official SPA news agency reported.
“The kingdom remains engaged in the search for a political solution in Yemen which guarantees the security and stability of the country,” the statement said.
The statement also called on Houthis to “embark on this path” toward a political solution.
The Security Council was already discussing a British-drafted resolution to enshrine five requests made by U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock – one of which was for a truce around facilities needed for aid and commercial imports – and diplomats said that would now be reworked to endorse the agreement reached in Sweden.
“We hope to be able to work expeditiously with colleagues to bring about a Security Council resolution which will give the firmest possible support to what has been achieved so far,” British U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce told the council. “As requested we will of course want – with colleagues – to address the monitoring requirements,” she said.
The conflict has pushed Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, to the verge of famine, and millions of people rely on food aid. More than 80 percent of Yemen’s imports used to come through Hodeida port, but that has slowed to a trickle.
“The U.N. will take on a leading role in supporting Yemen Red Sea Ports Corporation in management and inspections at Hodeida, Salif and Ras Issa,” Griffiths said. “The U.N. … has developed a plan seeking specific support from member states in the port.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned that the Security Council would be watching: “We must be ready to act if one or more of the parties fails to follow through.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Iran welcomed the initial agreements “and hopes it will pave the way for the next round of dialogue for concluding a final accord among Yemeni groups.”
“The agreement is significant. The deal showed that the Yemeni groups involved in the talks had truly understood the deplorable conditions of the innocent and oppressed Yemeni people,” Ghasemi said.