UN removes Saudi-led coalition

The United Nations on Monday said it would temporarily remove the Saudi-led coalition from a blacklist over the deaths of hundreds of children in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia had reacted angrily to a UN decision to add the coalition to a list of children's rights violators after determining that it was responsible for 60 percent of the 785 children killed in Yemen last year.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed to a Saudi proposal to review the facts and cases cited in the report jointly with the coalition, his spokesman Stephan Dujarric said. 

"Pending the conclusions of the joint review, the secretary-general removes the listing of the coalition in the report's annex," he added. 

Saudi Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi told reporters that the coalition felt "vindicated" and declared that the change to the list was "final and unconditional."

The ambassador earlier said he was "deeply disappointed" and "disturbed" by the report and that the figure of 60 percent was "wildly exaggerated."

He demanded the report "be corrected immediately so that it does not reflect the accusations against the coalition and Saudi Arabia in particular." 

Mouallimi met with UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson to discuss the listing.

The coalition launched an air campaign in support of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour in March 2015 to push back Huthi rebels after they seized the capital Sanaa and many parts of the country.

The war has left some 6,400 people dead, with more than 80 percent of the population in desperate need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.

The report was released Thursday as the United Nations was seeking progress in talks held in Kuwait to try to end the war.

Mouallimi had warned that adding the coalition to the UN blacklist would be "counterproductive for the purposes of the peace negotiations on Yemen."

The ambassador acknowledged that "there were some collateral damages from time to time" but that the coalition had played a "positive role" in restoring Yemen's legitimate government and providing humanitarian aid.

Dujarric earlier defended the report and said some adjustments would be made even though the list would remain intact.

He issued a statement a few hours later announcing that the coalition would be removed pending the review.

Human rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the heavy civilian toll from the Saudi-led campaign.

Source: AFP