The top UN envoy for Yemen has said he is intensifying efforts to achieve an expanded truce between the warring parties that would hopefully lead to the start of talks on a ceasefire and preparations for resuming a Yemeni-led political process.
Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council on Monday that the agreement by the internationally recognised government and Houthi rebels on August 2 to a two-month extension of the truce continues the longest pause in fighting since Yemen’s civil war began in 2014. The truce began April 2.
He said the parties' commitment to continue negotiations to reach an expanded truce agreement by October 2 also provides an opportunity to further improve the daily lives of Yemenis facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Failure to extend the truce "would lead to renewed cycles of escalation and violence," he warned in the video briefing. “Yemen urgently needs to avoid this scenario, and I call on the parties to make the choice to build the necessary confidence to avoid a return to war and to begin to build a lasting peace.”
Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014, when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital, forcing the government to flee to the south and then to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition — then backed by the United States — entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. Since then, the conflict has turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which backs the Houthis.
READ MORE: UN: Truce in Yemen renewed for two months
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'Alarming conditions persist'
Four-and-a-half months into the truce, Grundberg said, the truce continues to “broadly hold in military terms” with no major military operations or changes to frontlines and no confirmed airstrikes in Yemen or cross-border attacks from Yemen.
The significant decline in casualties since the start of the truce is continuing, with the lowest casualty count in the first week of August since the beginning of the truce and the war, he said.
But Ghada Mudawi, the acting director of operations and advocacy in the UN humanitarian office, told the council that “according to open-source reports, more than 150 civilians have been killed since the truce began in April.”
She cited the shelling of a residential district in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, that killed one child and injured 10 other children July 23.
Grundberg said he recently spent time on both sides of the frontline in Taiz, and opening the roads there and in other provinces "continue to be at the forefront of my efforts." He said several proposals with different sets of roads and sequencing options have been presented to the parties.
On a positive note, Grundberg said that since the truce, 33 ships have been cleared to enter Yemen’s main port, Hodeida, bringing in almost a million metric tons of various fuel products. In addition, 31 round-trip plane flights have taken place between the capital, Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis, and Amman, Jordan, transporting more than 15,000 passengers, he said.
Despite the truce, Mudawi, the UN humanitarian official, said that “alarming conditions persist” in the economy.
READ MORE: WFP further cuts food rations in war-torn Yemen
Source: AP
In a special gesture, to honour Pakistan's 75th Independence Day, European Union Ambassador Dr Riina Kionka played the national anthem on the trumpet.
The unique way to mark the upcoming 14th of August, when Pakistan obtained independence in 1947, was shared through a special campaign on the social media channels of the European Union delegation to Pakistan in Islamabad, said a news release issued by the European Union Commission on Thursday.
The year 2022 also marks 60 years of EU-Pakistan relations in a long-standing partnership that makes both countries stronger together.
It added that the EU is committed to a stable, democratic, and pluralistic country that respects human rights and benefits from its full economic potential by supporting sustainable and inclusive development for all its citizens.
The collaboration between the European Union and Pakistan is grounded in the strategic engagement plan signed in 2019.
It maintained that the SEP's cooperation areas include not only peace and security, but democracy, rule of law, human rights and migration, but also energy, climate change, and science and technology.
As one of Pakistan's biggest trading partners, the EU helps the country join the global economy and grow its economy in a sustainable way. Since 2014, it has given Pakistan preferential access to the European single market through the GSP+ system.
Meanwhile, the EU ambassador called on Federal Minister for Law and Justice Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar at the ministry. Both discussed issues of mutual interest and the further development of bilateral relations and reiterated their commitment to work together for a stronger partnership.
Efforts by Myanmar’s neighbours to help restore peace and normalcy to the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation have been hindered by the country’s recent executions of four political activists, Cambodia has said.
Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, speaking in his capacity as special envoy to Myanmar of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, warned on Saturday that further executions would force the regional grouping to reconsider how it engages with fellow member Myanmar.
Cambodia is the current chair of the regional grouping, and Myanmar is not welcome to send members of its ruling military government to ASEAN meetings because of its failure to cooperate with a plan agreed upon last year to work toward restoring peace.
ASEAN meeting’s final communique, issued on Friday, included a section criticising Myanmar for its lack of progress in ending violence there, but with weaker language than several countries had hoped for.
On Saturday, Prak Sokhonn said the nine ASEAN members aside from Myanmar had “agreed to see how things will evolve in the coming weeks and months.”
He said “if more executions are conducted, then things will have to be reconsidered,” which suggested that ASEAN is prepared to downgrade its engagement with Myanmar’s military government.
Prak Sokhonn said progress has been made on providing humanitarian aid to Myanmar, but not on the other main points in ASEAN’s plan: stopping the violence and opening up a political dialogue among all the country’s contending parties.
“The only will I see now is to continue to fight,” he said. “Why? Because of the lack of trust and the execution of the activists, whether it is legal or illegal.”
“And without this trust, the fight will continue and the political process will never start because no one will come if they fear for their life,” he said.
Prak Sokhonn declined to say whether he had been in contact with the opposition group, but declared that he was free as special envoy to engage with anyone outside Myanmar.
ASEAN has been criticised by some of its own members as well as other countries for doing too little to pressure Myanmar to implement the five-point consensus.
READ MORE: UN Security Council condemns Myanmar executions in rare consensus
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Myanmar hits out at ASEAN
Myanmar’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement on Friday, saying it objected to a reference in the ASEAN joint statement to a “lack of progress” in implementing the five-point consensus because “it neglects Myanmar’s efforts on its implementation.”
It also said that the four men recently executed were not punished because they were political activists but because they were “found guilty of masterminding, inciting, supporting, arming and committing terrorist activities which caused tremendous loss of innocent lives.”
The opposition forces in Myanmar operate as an underground alternative administration, the National Unity Government, and its affiliated armed wing, the People’s Defence Force.
Myanmar’s military government has branded the groups as “terrorists” and even declared contact with them to be illegal.
“If ASEAN member states and external partners genuinely wish to help Myanmar in restoring normalcy, they should not encourage engaging with the terrorist groups such as NUG and PDF and should avoid any actions that could encourage terrorism,” said Friday’s statement from Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry.
READ MORE: Who were the four activists put to death by Myanmar’s military rulers?
Source: AP
