Guterres Requests UN Security Council Set Up Six-Month Monitoring of Yemen Ceasefire

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Guterres Requests UN Security Council Set Up Six-Month Monitoring of Yemen Ceasefire

Jan. 9, 2019 (EIRNS)—The UN Security Council today took up a letter from Secretary General Antonio Guterres presenting a proposal for establishing a 75-member monitoring team with a mandate of six months. They would monitor the situation in Hodeidah and two other ports.

“Appropriate resources and assets will also be required to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel, including armored vehicles, communications infrastructure, aircraft and appropriate medical support,”

Guterres wrote, reports Reuters. “Such resources will be a prerequisite for the effective launch and sustainment of the proposed mission,” he said. The UNSC will have to act by about Jan. 20, when the 30-day mandate for the advance monitoring team under Dutch Gen. Patrick Cammaert (ret.) expires.

Also reporting to the UN Security Council today was UN Special Envoy to Syria Martin Griffiths. He visited the Houthi-held capital Sana’a on Jan. 7, then went to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he met with Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi regarding the efforts to establish the ceasefire agreed on in Stockholm in December.

Abdullah al-Alimi, the head of Hadi’s office, wrote on Twitter that Hadi remained committed to the ceasefire accord and stood ready to open up “all humanitarian access,” reports AFP. Under the deal, the Houthis were supposed to hand over the port of Hodeidah and two other ports to “local authorities in accordance with Yemen law,” but both sides have been in dispute over the wording of the agreement. There is also disagreement on the redeployment of forces from Hodeidah as well.