‘US committed to protect the region from Houthi and Iranian threats’

TDT | Manama              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

The particular elements of the truce have been extremely effective and have delivered tangible results to the Yemeni people over the last six months, said Tim Lenderking, United States’ Special Envoy for Yemen. 

The veteran diplomat was speaking at an online press conference a few days ago, which was attended by The Daily Tribune, when he made these remarks.  

“We were concerned that the Houthis did not accept the UN’s proposal for a truce extension on October 2nd, but we do see that key elements of the truce continue to hold and that intensive UN-led negotiations and US diplomacy continue unabated. 

When I talk about key elements of the truce holding, let me be clear what I mean.  I mean that there is still a relatively low level of violence in the country.  Fuel ships continue to offload into Hodeidah port.  There will be more continuity in civilian – commercial flights from Sana’a airport.” He further outlined the benefits of truce.

“When we talk about the tangible benefits of the peace, let’s consider what we’ve already witnessed: dramatic reduction of 60 percent in civilian casualties; over 25,000 Yemeni citizens being able to fly on commercial flights in and out of Sana’a airport for the first time since 2016; there’s five times more fuel per month coming onto the market through Hodeidah port compared to last year, which makes it more widely available and actually lowers fuel prices. 

“I think these are very important benefits – humanitarian organisations have pointed to each of these factors as enabling their work, enabling access, allowing Yemenis to seek medical attention outside of Yemen for conditions that cannot be met in – with Yemen’s health system, allowing families to reunite with their own families abroad.” 

On the choices that lie ahead, Mr Lenderking said: “On the one hand, there is a return to war, which will bring nothing but casualties and destruction on Yemen and will create further confusion as to where this conflict is headed. 

On the positive side, there is the opportunity to not only extend but expand the truce – that is, to bring more elements, positive elements of the truce, the likes of which would include flights, as I mentioned; there have been ongoing and very energetic discussions with numerous countries on additional flight destinations.  

More deals on way

“We would anticipate that the kind of processing for fuel into Hodeidah would be streamlined even further.  We expect to reach – be able to reach agreements on salary payments.  This has been a core demand of both parties, right, to have the ability to pay Yemeni civil servants who have not been paid for many years: teachers, nurses, civil servants, to provide salaries for them.”

With regard to the pending salaries of Yemeni civil servants and emergency workers, he pointed out: “We already have a public commitment from the Yemeni Government, the Saudi-led coalition, on the salary issue.  It’s been made public. 

The stumbling block to renewing the truce on Sunday was, in fact, the Houthis imposing maximalist and impossible demands that the parties simply could not reach, certainly in the time that was available.  So I think if we see more flexibility from the Houthi side going forward, then this opens the road, I think, to this much better peace option.

“I think it’s very important to note, as I said, that US and UN and international diplomacy continue unabated.  There is absolutely no let-up in the engagement among the parties and across the lines of the conflict parties. 

All channels remain open and I think this is very important at this particularly sensitive time.  And so we want to see that those channels remain open.  They can create a path to durable peace.  This is why I will return to the region in the very near future to continue this very energetic US engagement to complement the efforts of the UN envoy.”

He said the US is committed to protect the region from Iranian and Houthi threats. “We saw the Houthi rhetoric that threatened commercial shipping and oil companies.  This is completely unacceptable.  We made that clear in the statement we released on Monday from Washington.  It remains in our national interest to help our Gulf partners defend themselves from any external aggression, and we would do so in the case of aggression coming from Yemen.  

“The President and the Secretary have been clear that the United States will continue to support our Gulf partners, their legitimate defense needs, in order to meet existing and emerging threats – and that includes the cross-border attacks from Yemen and elsewhere against targets inside Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

After all, there are more than 120,000 US citizens living and working in the countries of the Gulf region.  I know that the President and the Secretary have no higher objective than ensuring the security of Americans wherever they live abroad.”