News story: Yemen: Foreign Secretary to host meeting with Saudi, Emirati and US counterparts

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will host a meeting on Yemen in London today (Friday 26 April) with representatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Yemen meeting will discuss the next steps in the UN-led peace process and how best to support the efforts of UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths.

Attending the meeting will be Saudi Arabian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Mr Adel al-Jubeir, Minister for Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and David Satterfield, representing the United States.

Ahead of the meeting Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

I called this meeting so that we keep doing everything we can to move forward on the hard road to peace in Yemen. This is a horrendous conflict and it is taking too long to turn the ceasefire agreed in Stockholm into a durable path to peace. While it is hugely welcome that both sides recently agreed the UN’s plan for the first phase of troop redeployments in Hodeidah, this took two months after the initial agreement was reached in Stockholm – far longer than we had all hoped.

The UK remains resolute that there can be no military solution to the conflict. All parties must keep to the commitments made in Stockholm and rapidly implement them. There is far too much at stake to let this fragile peace process fail.

This group of countries has met on a number of occasions to discuss Yemen, the most recent meeting was in February in Warsaw. Last month, in a display of support to the Government of Yemen and for UN efforts to secure peace, the Foreign Secretary visited Aden on the first visit to Yemen by a Western foreign minister since the start of the conflict in 2015.