Thank you Mr President, and thank you SRSG Grundberg and USG Griffiths for your valuable and sobering briefings today.
Hans, the UK warmly welcomes the launch of your consultations with the parties this month. We commend your inclusive approach, which invites the views of a wide range of Yemenis, and we encourage all parties to engage constructively in line with their obligations under resolution 2624.
I would like to thank Council members for their efforts in the adoption of that resolution. It imposed, for the first time, an arms embargo on the Houthis as a whole and explicitly denounced the “Houthi terrorist group”. This is vital as we witness continued cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including last Thursday’s attack on a Saudi oil refinery.
It is important to highlight that resolution 2624 was also clear in its support for the continued maintenance of humanitarian access and commercial imports of food, fuel and other essential civilian commodities into all Yemen’s ports. The Council has not targeted humanitarian activity or trade.
Resolution 2624 also called for the immediate return of all US and UN staff to their families and for Houthi withdrawal from the US embassy. The United Kingdom strongly condemns the detention in February of an additional US staff member. We also call for the Houthis to release British National Luke Symons.
As we’ve heard from Martin today, across Yemen, the conflict continues to have a devastating human toll. The evidence from the IPC, and from today’s briefing, is clear: Yemen is experiencing drastically deteriorating food security. As seven million Yemenis risk starvation in 2022, and the numbers of those in famine-like conditions is expected to increase five-fold, the Yemen Pledging Conference convenes tomorrow in need of $4.27 billion. The United Kingdom calls on all donors, including those in the region, to step up.
Finally Mr President, I would like to end on a hopeful humanitarian note, by welcoming the signature this month of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Houthis and UN regarding the transfer of oil from the Safer tanker, as Martin briefed us. This is an important step; we must now all act together in support of the initiative.
Thank you, Mr President.
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