As UN
Cancels May 28
Talks, Saudis
Want Riyadh
Declaration As
Basis
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, May 24
-- The UN's
bungling of
Yemen
mediation has
become ever
more clear,
according to
multiple
sources and
documents
exclusively
seen by Inner
City Press.
From Riyadh,
Hadi wrote to
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
opposing the
scheduled May
28 meetings in
Geneva, which
were already
Saudi
top-heavy.
And, Inner
City Press is
informed, the
UN already informed
the Houthis
and other participants
that May 28 is
off (although
as of this
publication on
May 24 at 9:30
pm in New York
the UN has yet
to announce
it.)
But what were
and are the
Saudis' demands?
Inner City
Press is
exclusively
informed by
well placed
sources that
the Saudis
demand that
the basis --
and constraints
-- of the Geneva
meeting be the
"Riyadh
Declaration,"
reached
without any
involvement by
the Houthis.
The UN already
let the Saudis
name
individuals
who would
attend under
the heading
"women, youth
and civil
society." The
GCC and the
G14 were to attend
-- the deck
was already
stacked for
the Saudis.
But they
wanted the
Riyadh Declaration
as the basis
(just as they
excluded the
September 2014
Peace and Partnership
Agreement).
Or,
as one well
place source
put it, the
Saudis don't
WANT a UN
process, "they
want to keep
bombing,
either to eliminate
the Houthis" -
a la Sri Lanka
and the LTTE
-- or to "make
them
capitulate and
agree to a
final meeting
in Riyadh."
The Houthis
agreeing to
that, ever,
seems
unlikely. It
is the UN of
Ban Ki-moon
that has capitulated.
Watch this
site.
First the UN
allowed US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry to tell
it not to dare
hold Yemen
talks in
Geneva on May
11 as the UN
had planned,
as Inner City
Press exclusively
reported on
May 6.
Now the May 28
talks in
Geneva,
conveniently
after the
Houthi-less
talks in
Riyadh, will
be stacked in
ways both
pro-Saudi and
laughable,
sources tell
Inner City
Press.
New
Saudi-picked
"UN" envoy
Ismael Ould
Cheikh Ahmed,
who appeared
on the podium
in Riyadh, has
dropped from
the list of
documents on
which the May
28 talks are
based the
Peace and
Partnership
Agreement that
all Yemeni
political
parties agreed
to on
September 21,
2014.
The reason?
Saudi Arabia
doesn't like
what was
agreed to at
that time: it
created
obligations
not only for
the Houthis
but also for
Hadi. So it is
gone.
Update:
and now, at
least for now,
so is Hadi.
Despite the
May 28 talks
being Saudi
dominated,
Hadi says he
won't go
unless
Security
Council
resolution
2216 is "fully
implemented."
And about
about the
Peace and
Partnership
Agreement that
he signed but
didn't
implement?
We'll have
more on this.
Slated for
attendance on
May 28 are the
Saudi-led
Organization
of the Islamic
Conference,
the Gulf
Cooperation
Council
currently
headed by
Bahrain and
GCC
Secretary-General
Abdullatif
Al-Zayani -
but notably
not Iran. The
number of
seats for the
Houthis will
be limited.
Who else is
slated to go?
Causing
laughter in
diplomatic
circle and in
Yemen where it
is sorely
needed, Cheikh
Ahmed is
angling to fly
in the
so-called
Children's
Parliament
organized by
an NGO in
Yemen, as well
as their
parents and
guardians.
"Who is paying
for this?" one
source
demanded of
Inner City
Press.
This last step
is blamed by
the sources on
Cheikh Ahmed
having little
political
background.
Inner City
Press has
already
reported on
his failure
while
previously in
Yemen to
protect UN
staff --
failure to
pick up the
armored
vehicles from
the airport or
have the
recommended
security
detail with
staff going to
the airport,
leading to the
long
kidnapping of
a UNICEF
staffer.
But
even at
UNICEF, Cheikh
Ahmed was in
human
resources, not
substantive
policy. And
the Press
questions
about his
fishing
business and
its funders
remain
UNanswered.
We'll have
more on this.
For now, this:
Inner City
Press is
informed that
after Cheikh
Ahmed's quick
visit to Iran,
he was
summoned back
to Riyadh and,
highly
irregular for
the UN, went
without his
policy "team,"
not even a
note-taker.
What might
have been
discussed?
The UN, we
note,
routinely
refuses to
answer Press
questions.
Back on April
29, Inner City
Press asked
the UN's
deputy
spokesperson
to confirm
that the UN
was
considering
Geneva as a
venue to
continue Yemen
talks, after
its previous
envoy Jamal
Benomar
resigned in
protest of
Saudi
airstrikes and
was replaced
by a more
amenable
envoy, Ismael
Ould Cheikh
Ahmed.
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