UN Security Council calls for starting national dialogue

The UN Security Council members have called upon the political parties in Yemen to accelerate the start of the process of national dialogue, directing a warning to those who are trying to disrupt this process. This came during discussions in the Council session on Tuesday, which was devoted to listen to the report of the Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General and his envoy to Yemen, Jamal bin Omar, under the regular meetings of the UN Security Council dedicated to follow up the latest developments in Yemen and functioning of the transition process based on the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism and the Security Council resolutions 2014 and 2051. Whereas bin Omar praised, in his report to the Council, the progress made at the level of translation of the Gulf initiative and its operational mechanism, he confirmed at the same time that Yemen still faces several key challenges most notably the restructuring of army and security forces under a unified command and spread of weapons throughout the country beside the terrorism and corruption."The transition process is threatened by those who have not yet understood that the change must be done now, as the filibusters from every party have not given up blocking the process and exploiting the instability”, bin Omar said. He added: "Many Yemenis are waiting for the Security Council to closely monitor these obstructionists, and to punish them if necessary." Bin Omar explained that the climate of mistrust has not dissipated between the two main political blocs in the country - the General People’s Congress (GPC) and the joint meeting parties (JMPs) - which form the national reconciliation government. He said in this regard: "While the GPC feels that it is unusually targeted for excluding some of its cadres, the former opposition (JMPs) currently participating in the government complains the inadequate representation and insists on a quest to appointments in key positions”. "Whereas the two sides signed to participate in the government of national accord, but the media campaigns between them are ongoing, which fuels the already tense relationship between them”, he added. The UN envoy continued: "The former president Ali Abdullah Saleh is still active as head of the GPC Party, who is acting as head of the opposition, heaping the criticism on the national accord government, though his party represents a half of it". Bin Omar pointed out that the political scene is changing, with the possibility of changing alliances, and this what many politicians fail to realize. He alluded that the technical preparatory committee for the national dialogue reached a standstill a few days ago in the discussion of percentages of the representation and the allocation of seats for the components that will participate in the dialogue conference. "Based on the request, I presented ideas to help advancing the process of national dialogue, with emphasis on the absence of the ideal equation that can satisfy all parties", bin Omar added, expressing his happiness in this regard that those ideas contributed to solving this recent contentious issue faced by the preparatory committee. He confirmed that the preparatory committee is about to finish its work and will produce its final report that identifies controls and structures of the conference. “We managed to support the request of the local women's groups representation in the national dialogue conference by at least thirty percent”, said bin Omar. At the same time, he pointed to the importance of taking actions by the Yemeni government to address the demands of southerners in order to promote confidence and create a suitable environment for the launch of the national dialogue process. The UN envoy praised the issuance of the presidential decision to appoint a new commission for elections, calling on the Security Council and international partners to support the process of peaceful transition in Yemen. In the meeting ,Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations ,Ambassador Jamal Abdullah al-Sallal, delivered the speech of Yemen, in which he stressed that the Yemeni political parties in cooperation with the international community are working for the success of the political transition process and to support the efforts of President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The ambassador pointed out that efforts are currently focused primarily on the completion of all preparations for launching the comprehensive national dialogue conference. Al-Sallal demanded the donor states and organizations to fulfil their commitments to support the economic development programs adopted by the Yemeni government so as to alleviating suffering of citizens.