Speech: Security Council stands behind Special Envoy on Yemen

Thank you very much Madam President. Thank you for convening this session which we appreciate very much. It was very good to be able to hear from the Special Envoy. We appreciate the efforts he’s made. We share his disappointment at the fact that the talks did not go ahead as planned but it was good to hear that the consultations he did manage to hold yielded some positive outcomes. I think among those was the inclusivity point that you mentioned Martin, particularly the presence of the women. I think that’s excellent.

But I do urge all sides including the Houthis to get behind the process that the Special Envoy is leading, to invest in confidence-building measures and engage in future consultations in good faith. This is bound to require flexibility from all sides but we all know and we’ve said many times there’s no alternative to a political solution. We do support you. We’d like to continue to support you to the hilt. We can offer Council members some press elements if that would be welcome as a way of expressing that the Council stands behind you at this time as you try and bring all the parties back together.

I think what you said about the economy of Yemen just gives added urgency to an already desperate situation. So I hope we can all build on that.

Thank you Madam President.