Statement by Mr.Vladimir Safronkov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, at the Security Council on the sitiation in Yemen
We thank the delegation of the United Kingdom for having taken this initiative and the United States delegation for convening today’s important meeting so promptly.
We are grateful to Mr. Lowcock for his briefing on the humanitarian situation in Yemen, which we found extremely alarming.
We have a long history of friendship with the people of Yemen, and we deeply and sincerely sympathize with them. While we note the courageous efforts of the humanitarian workers there, we realize that the only possible solutions to the problem are political ones. Like our other colleagues on the Council, we are worried about the escalation of violence in Yemen and have expressed our position on the issue many times. De-escalating the situation around Al-Hudaydah and halting offensive operations should help Special Envoy Griffiths succeed in his efforts.
We call for restraint and for refraining from relying on force. We do not believe that one of the parties can extract greater flexibility from the other through violent pressure. The history of the conflict in Yemen shows that that approach does not work. Mr. Lowcock quite rightly said just now that the only losers in this conflict will be the people of Yemen, who have endured unprecedented suffering and terrible experiences, including a cholera epidemic — in the twenty-first century. We must now all band together to support the efforts of Special Envoy Griffiths, whom we see as an objective and impartial mediator who has held fruitful talks with the Yemeni Government’s delegation in Geneva.
Productive contact was also made recently with representatives of Ansar Allah in Sana’a and Muscat. We are certain that a way can still be found to reach agreements, particularly on establishing confidence-building measures. There is a real chance of making progress on issues regarding the exchange of prisoners, opening the Sana’a airport, establishing international control at the port of Al-Hudaydah and paying Government workers’ salaries throughout Yemen.
We call on all the parties to the conflict in Yemen to actively join Mr. Griffith’s mediation efforts. Unilateral acts such as the missile strikes on Saudi Arabian territory, which we condemn, cannot produce effective, long-term results and can ultimately only widen the gulf of misunderstanding and mistrust between the opposing sides and undermine the prospects for restoring peace. For our part, we will continue to support the Special Envoy’s efforts through our contacts with all the parties to the conflict in Yemen, and we urge our colleagues to give him active assistance.
We support a halt to the violence throughout Yemen, which will enable the country to focus on the political process and on the urgent task of rebuilding its ruined infrastructure immediately. Its economy lies in ruins, and any delay threatens to make the country’s already dire situation unredeemable. Russia will continue its humanitarian assistance to the people of Yemen in both the north and south. In conclusion, we would like to stress that finding solutions to the conflict in Yemen would contribute significantly to stabilizing the situation throughout the subregion.
We want to remind the Council of our proposal for launching a process for drafting a package of security- and confidence-building measures in the Persian Gulf, and ultimately throughout the Middle East. Establishing this kind of architecture, which all the key countries in the region, including the Gulf States and Iran, should participate in, would not only help to strengthen comprehensive and indivisible security in that part of the world but also to resolve both long-standing and new crises, including the Yemeni conflict. Threats and confrontation must give way to dialogue and cooperation, and cooperation on that basis can enable us to settle the conflict quickly.
