UN Council votes to send observers to Yemen

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution that authorises the deployment of observers to war-torn Yemen to oversee a fragile truce in the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida.

The draft, which was submitted by Britain, had been the subject of tough negotiations among the 15 council members, and was amended several times before the vote.

It also endorses the results of UN-brokered peace negotiations in Sweden last week.

Yemen's warring parties agreed to a ceasefire that took effect Tuesday and the withdrawal of fighters in Hodeida, a major gateway for aid and food imports.

The city is a vital lifeline for millions at risk of starvation, and the ceasefire between Saudi-backed government forces and Huthi Shiite rebels is seen as the best chance yet of ending four years of devastating conflict.

The agreement also included a planned prisoner swap involving about 15,000 detainees.

The UN Security Council resolution "insists on the full respect by all parties of the ceasefire agreed" for Hodeida.

It authorises the United Nations to "establish and deploy, for an initial period of 30 days from the adoption of this resolution, an advance team to begin monitoring" the ceasefire, under the leadership of retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert.

Saudi Arabia welcomed the resolution which means the Huthis "will lose their margin of maneuver," Khalid Manzlawi, the kingdom's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

He also thanked Kuwait and Saudi Arabia's ally the United States "for reaching the appropriate formula for the resolution, which is in the interest of the people of Yemen and the maintenance of international peace and security."
The resolution also authorises UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to "submit proposals as soon as possible before December 31, 2018 on how the United Nations will fully support the Stockholm Agreement as requested by the parties."
In a compromise, the phrase "further condemning the supply, from Iran and other actors" of the Huthis became "the supply, from whatever source."
On December 8, the UN said that as many as 20 million people in Yemen were "food insecure," calling the situation the "world's worst humanitarian crisis."
Louis Charbonneau, the UN director for Human Rights Watch, said the resolution "sends an important message to the suffering people of Yemen that they haven't been forgotten."