Blinken Urges Yemeni Parties to Engage in Dialogue without Pre-conditions

Arab World

September 24th, 4:39am

Washington - Muath Alamri

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, US, September 16, 2021. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the all parties in Yemen “to engage without pre-conditions” to reach a political solution to the crisis that has plagued the country for seven years. Speaking from the United Nations during the 76th General Assembly, he urged on all donors to fulfill their humanitarian pledges as soon as possible. “Humanitarian assistance makes a critical difference in people’s lives, but it alone cannot resolve this crisis,” remarked Blinken. “The United States remains committed to an inclusive, UN-led peace process to achieve a durable resolution to the conflict for all Yemenis.” “Senior US officials, including US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking, continue to work closely with the United Nations and key regional and international partners to build on the unprecedented international consensus on the need to end the war,” he added. “We call on all parties to engage without pre-conditions with new UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg and with each other, and to take meaningful steps to end a war which has gone on too long and has claimed too many lives. We have an opportunity to achieve peace in Yemen, and we must seize it,” he declared. Blinken announced that the US was providing more than $290 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Yemen. “The United States has provided nearly $806 million in humanitarian assistance to Yemen since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2021. In total, the United States has provided more than $4 billion to alleviate the suffering of the people of Yemen since the current crisis began in late 2014,” he revealed. On Thursday, the head of the UN food agency warned that 16 million people in Yemen “are marching towards starvation” and said food rations for millions in the war-torn nation will be cut in October unless new funding arrives. David Beasley said Wednesday at a high-level meeting on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis that the United States, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other donors stepped up when the World Food Program was running out of money earlier this year and “because of that we averted famine and catastrophe.” He urged world leaders to put pressure on all parties to end the suffering of the Yemeni people who are seeing their currency, the riyal, devalued and food prices spike. WFP is running out of money again and without new funding reductions will be made in rations for 3.2 million people in October and for 5 million by December, he said. The high-level meeting Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting raised about $600 million, according to the European Union, which co-hosted the session with Sweden and Switzerland. That still leaves at least $1 billion unfunded.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3206771/blinken-urges-yemeni-parties-engage-dialogue-without-pre-conditions