Saudi Arabia rejects UN group’s ‘politicized’ report on Yemen

Saudi Arabia rejected the report of the UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, calling it politicized and misleading.

The Kingdom also emphasized that it favors a Yemeni-Yemeni solution on the basis of international and regional initiatives to resolve the crisis in the neighboring country.

This was stated by Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, permanent representative of Saudi Arabia to UN in Geneva, during the interactive dialogue session to discuss the briefing of the group on Yemen here on Tuesday.

Addressing the session, Dr. Al-Wasel said Saudi Arabia believes that the solution in Yemen must be Yemeni-Yemeni in the first place, in accordance with the relevant regional and international initiatives, including the Kingdom’s recent initiative for a ceasefire and the resumption of dialogue.

“The solution should not be through politicized interventions and misleading reports that lead to a deepening of the crisis,” he said while referring to the fourth report of the group presented to the UN Human Rights Council.

Dr. Al-Wasel affirmed the Kingdom’s position rejecting the mandate of the team and the Kingdom’s non-recognition of the politicized reports released by it and the outcomes they reached through biased tools as well as from the unreliable sources.

He stated that the team’s practices and reports certainly indicate lack of impartiality. “The Kingdom was subjected to missile attacks by the terrorist Houthi militia, targeting citizens and vital infrastructure. However, the team stated that these attacks are of a military nature,” he pointed out.

In his speech, Dr. Al-Wasel expressed surprise over the group’s biased monitoring of the Houthi terrorist coup militia, asking whether this would actually contribute to resolving the Yemeni crisis, or does it encourage the militias to continue their coup? Why does the team neglect to refer to the Security Council Resolution 2216 in all its reports, he asked.

Al-Wasel emphasized that the team did not abide by its mandate, and wondered how an international team could call the coup leader a revolutionary leader. He also called on the Human Rights Council and the UN High Commissioner to hold the team accountable for such a biased and politicized report.