Benomar: World is following up successes of political settlement in Yemen

Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General and his envoy to Yemen ,Jamal Benomar, has said that the world is following up with admiration the progress made in the transition process in Yemen. In an exclusive interview with Saba, Benomar added that the world is looking positively at the experience of Yemen, especially in light of the painful situation experienced by Syria and the new situation in Egypt and other countries. He indicated that everyone commends Yemen's distinct experience being dominated by Yemeni wisdom, and reflected the political courage of all parties that have agreed upon the road of peaceful transfer of power. The UN’s envoy pointed out that what distinguishes the Yemeni experience is an agreement by all parties on the principle of political participation and non-exclusion of any party through organizing the National Dialogue Conference. Benomar confirmed the continued regional and international support for Yemen in this delicate and crucial stage reached by Yemen's transition process with the progress of the national dialogue conference and the success of this conference. He said , in this regard, that the Yemenis have achieved an important success in the first and important half of the national dialogue conference by agreeing on the outputs related to fundamental and pivotal issues, which will be relied upon to build the new constitution. Benomar also touched during the interview to the challenges still facing the transition process in Yemen, demonstrating Yemen suffers from a humanitarian problem. He explained that a half of Yemen's population are suffering from malnutrition, including one million of Yemeni children suffer from acute malnutrition, and the miserable living conditions, the limited resources of the state and continuing attacks on the infrastructures, especially the attacks on oil and gas pipeline and power lines, which cost the state millions of dollars of losses per month . In this regard, Benomar expressed his solidarity with the Yemeni people who suffer from the ongoing phenomenon of sabotage against the infrastructure that aims to hinder the political settlement. “ This is a crime against the Yemeni people and this will not help the government to do its duties”, he said. He stressed in this regard that it is time to take the necessary measures to punish and to hold everyone who wants to undermine the political process through vandalism. "Actually there was an organized work aimed to undermine the political process, and the Security Council acknowledged this challenge and issued the resolution No. (2051), under which the council has threatened sanctions under item (41) of the Charter of the United Nations", Benomar added. About the differences between the political parties on the determination of the time period for transitional justice project, Benomar said that those differences is a normal thing. With regard to the issue of the South, UN envoy stressed that the framework for resolving the issue is available at the present. Regarding his recent visit to Saada province, Benomar said that the visit was positive aimed to know about the situation and the views of all parties.