Khalid al-Yamani

Yemen’s ambassador to the United Nations, Khalid al-Yamani, announced in exclusive statements to Asharq Al-Awsat that the current month’s US presidency of the Security Council was practicing all forms of pressure on the Houthi rebels in order to lift the siege on Taiz city in Yemen, knowing that the rebels are practicing collective punishment tactics including starvation.

Al-Yamani said that the international law punishes such behaviors, thus the Security Council is adding more rebels to the sanctions lists for breaking International Humanitarian Law.

Al-Yamani added that the preparations for the next round of consultations between the legitimate government and the Houthi rebels along with the former Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, are ongoing, however, the venue for the next round is not yet specified.

He also said that the legitimate government’s party is preparing for the next round of consultations and he asked the UN Envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, to oblige the Houthis to liberate the detainees and lift the siege on Taiz city as he considered these cases among the main confidence-building measures.

In response to a question about whether the talks held between the UN Envoy, Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and Iranian officials, following the end of the consultations in Switzerland last week, aimed at engaging Tehran in the political solution in Yemen, the Yemeni Ambassador, Khalid al-Yamani said: “We don’t believe that Iran has any role to play in Yemen’s peace”. He also confirmed that Iran is working on fueling the conflict by pushing the rebel party to refuse implementing resolution 2216. He added that Iran is part of the problem and it does not want to contribute to a solution since it might defeat its expansionist projects and designs of sectarian chaos in the Arab world.