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Saudi-British Agreement Puts London’s Yemen Draft Resolution on Hold | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed speaks during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, June 19, 2015 (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)


New York, London, Jeddah- Saudi-led talks recently conducted with the UK have helped postpone the adoption of a British draft resolution on a Yemeni settlement a few days after London had sent the plan to U.N. Security Council members for discussion.

A joint Arab-Gulf diplomatic effort led by Saudi Arabia has ended up convincing Britain to refrain from immediately presenting the draft resolution to the Security Council, Saudi Ambassador to the U.N. Abdullah bin Yahya al-Mouallimi said.

The ambassador told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that “there is a continuous and joint agreement with Britain concerning the draft resolution, and whether there is a need for it or not.”

Matthew Moody, the spokesman for the UK Mission to the U.N., also told the newspaper: “We do not have a deadline for presenting the draft resolution to the Security Council.”

He said that Britain would continue discussing the draft with its partners in detail.

Al-Mouallimi said the UK draft resolution includes an unnecessary text, in addition to having a wrong timing. According to the Saudi diplomat, the British text is also risky because it might lead to undesirable results that do not support sustainable peace.

Al-Mouallimi said that when the government recently rejected the roadmap, it did not make objections to the efforts exerted by the U.N. to resolve the Yemeni crisis. It only asserted that some of its clauses on the presidency as an institution violated U.N. Security Council Resolutions.

Last month, U.N. Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed presented a peace roadmap rejected by the Yemeni government as it granted the coup a political advantage.

The plan calls for the appointment of a new vice president and the formation of a national unity government that will oversee a transition leading to elections.

In Sana’a, Ould Cheikh discussed with Houthis the roadmap he had proposed to them last week. In a statement issued last Saturday, Ould Cheikh said the target of his visit to Sana’a was to negotiate all the peace proposal’s frameworks in detail to reach a comprehensive settlement and put Yemen on the path to peace.

The U.N. envoy also met with members of the diplomatic corps and others to discuss ways to alleviate the humanitarian suffering and assess the best ways to address the country’s economic crisis.

Meanwhile, Yemeni army spokesperson Brigadier Samir Al Haj said that revenues expected from telecommunication companies, ports and others, were not sent by rebels to the legitimate authorities, causing a delay in the payment of the salaries of employees in Sana’a.

He said that the revenues were instead deposited in the accounts of Houthis, violating the laws that stipulate their transfer to the Central Bank.