ICP
Asks UN
Envoy
IOCA
of WFP Ship,
He Refutes
Yemen PR, On
Staff
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 17 --
On February
16, Inner City
Press asked
the President
of the UN
Security
Council for
February,
Rafael Ramirez
of Venezuela,
about what UN
Relief Chief
Stephen
O'Brien said
in the
Council, that
the Saudi-led
coalition
diverted a UN
World Food
Program ship,
the MV
Mainport
Cedar, from
Hodeidah to
the Saudi port
of Jizan.
Ramirez said
this had been
discussed and
that the UN's
Stephen
O'Brien is
trying to
clarify it.
On February
17, before the
Security
Council heard
from UN enovy
Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed,
Inner City
Press asked
Yemen's stated
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
Khaled
Alyemany about
the WFP ship.
Alyemany said
that that ship
had been found
to have
Iranian
military
equipment. Video here. Inner City Press
immediately
asked OCHA and
then three
spokespeople
for WFP for
comment; three
hours later,
no comment.
But
Inner City
Press was able
to asked UN
envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh
Ahmed, about
the WFP ship
and about
where his
staff are and
what they are
doing. Video
here,
embedded
below.
InnerCityPro.com
has
transcribed
his responses
to Inner City
Press'
questions:
"In
regard to the
first
question, I
would like to
say that this
ship of WFP
did not
contain any
material apart
from the UN
material. This
equipment of
telecommunication,
and I was a
humanitarian
coordinator in
Yemen andin
Syria, and I
have worked in
different
places like
DRC when I was
in UNICEF. In
any place, we
need
communication,
to be able to
maintain
communication
with our
international
staff, and
national staff
too. So it’s
very
important, you
have to
realize we
never, UN
agency never.
So the whole
equipment,
containing
this ship of
WFP, was UN
controlled
equipment
totally, total
conformity
with what UN
imports, any
UN agency. So
I want to make
it very clear.
"In
regard to the
specifics
about my
staff, I would
like to
reiterate
today that
nobody is
working from
home. That’s
to make it
very clear
that there has
been
official,
in that regard
I cannot. But
what we are
doing is,
obviously we
are trying to
keep our staff
as close as
possible to
the real
crisis... The
place of work
is New York,
but you spend
the least
time, because
it has to be
Sana'a, it has
to be in
Riyadh for
conversation
with the
parties, it
has to be
Muscat when we
meet the
parties, we
have been also
in Jordan,
where we have
been meeting a
number of
political
parties, so I
can assure you
it is very
small, in
comparison to
a UN mission,
when you take
a comparison
of the UN
mission we are
meeting, and
the staff are
very high
caliber and
they are
trying their
best, and they
are very, very
difficult
circumstances.
And in fact
they are very
motivated.
Nobody is
depressed. I
can assure you
of that."
We'll
have more on
this. For now,
another video:
In
the Security
Council,
Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed
among other
things said,
"Deep
divisions
persist that
prevent me
from calling
for the next
round of
talks. The
parties are
divided over
whether a new
round of talks
should be
convened with
or without a
new cessation
of
hostilities. I
have not,
unfortunately,
received
sufficient
assurances
that a new
cessation of
hostilities,
should I call
for one, would
be respected."
, 
