Ministry of Human Rights Denounces Recent UN Security Council Statement on Yemen

Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights condemned the press statement of the UN Security Council on Yemen, issued last Wednesday.

Apparently worried by the Yemeni army’s rapid gains in the battle to liberate the strategic city of Marib, the UN Security Council has called for an urgent ceasefire across Yemen and an end to the army’s advances toward the last stronghold of Saudi-backed mercenaries.

In a statement, the Ministry indicated that the Security Council affirmed its disregard for the Charter of the United Nations and the rules and provisions of international humanitarian law, especially with regard to its primary responsibility to maintain human rights, maintain international peace and security, and prevent aggression against any member state of the United Nations.

It pointed out that the Council, with this stance, has deliberately ignored the violations and grave crimes of the countries of the coalition of aggression in Yemen from 2400 days until the date of issuing its last disastrous statement, in violation of all the rules and provisions of the law of war and human rights.

It stressed that the Security Council with this declaration is trying to legitimize the grave crimes and violations of the countries of the coalition of aggression inside Yemen, in addition to encouraging these countries to commit more massacres, referring to what happened a few hours after the council’s statement was issued. Civilians in the capital, Sana’a, were exposed to air strikes, likewise, the governorates of Sa’adah, Marib and Hodeidah.

The statement of the Ministry of Human Rights held the Security Council responsible for the crimes committed by the countries of the coalition of aggression, including the killing of more civilians and the destruction of vital installations.

It called on the Security Council to return to the avenue of international law, to distance itself from the continuous disregard and shameful silence, and to work to correct its bias with the countries of aggression, its deviations and its attitudes towards civilians in Yemen.

Exhibiting bias in favor of Riyadh, the Council condemned the Sana’a government’s retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia, while failing to note that Riyadh initiated the war and has continued to bombard Yemen ever since.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a war coalition against Yemen to  reinstall the ousted, Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in Sana’a.

The prolonged war, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, killing hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people while throwing the poorest Middle Eastern country into what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

A day earlier, UNICEF estimated that the protracted war in Yemen has killed or maimed at least 10,000 children, which is equivalent to four children every day.

In recent months, the Saudi-led coalition’s forces have been striving in vain to stop the Yemeni Army’s advances towards Marib city and its retaliatory attacks on Saudi soil.

Sana’a has asserted that its raids on Saudi Arabia are the direct result of the kingdom’s continued aggression against Yemen, pledging to end the attacks as soon as Riyadh and its allies end the war and lift the siege, as a result of which fuel shortages are adding to people’s suffering across the Arab country.