Good morning,  

I’ll begin with a few brief remarks before taking your questions. Let me begin by stating the obvious, Yemen has been through rough and difficult time these last months, and there have been moments the resumption of the civil war has been very close. 

That said, my mediation efforts and the United Nations approach to Yemen remains relentless and resolute and the United Nations remains ready and unwavering in our support for a negotiated exit from conflict and for a just and inclusive sustainable peace.  

With this said, there have been steps taken in the right direction lately. I consequently welcome the mutual understanding between the United States of America and Ansar Allah on a cessation of hostilities as a positive step for reducing tensions in the Red Sea and in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Let me take this opportunity to thank the Sultanate of Oman for the important role they played in that regard. 

I will use this development and every possible opportunity to build momentum for broader peace efforts in support of resuming the intra-Yemeni political process. I also would like to urge all parties to leverage this development in order to advance their earlier commitments for a nationwide ceasefire, critical economic steps and supporting a Yemeni-led political process. 

I will also take this opportunity to urge Ansar Allah to act responsibly and release all detained UN, and NGO, civil society, and diplomatic missions’ personnel immediately and unconditionally. Their prolonged detention is undermining all efforts to support Yemenis most in need.   

Thank you very much, and with that said if there are any questions I am happy to take them. 

Questions and Answers

Question: Hi, I'm Elie Boutelier from AFP News Agency. Thank you for the briefing. You said in the council here you welcome the agreement between the U.S. and the Houthis and said that it should be used as an opportunity to build on it to find a new path for going forward with the peace in Yemen. Could you elaborate a bit more about that and say how you see that as a step to build on?  

UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg: Thanks for that question. I have been absolutely clear in the previous briefings but also in my other public communication about the broader regional destabilization and the escalation that we've seen in Yemen, that has involved Yemen and especially linked to the tragedy that is emanating out of Gaza.  

The regional destabilization that is affecting the situation in Yemen needs to be addressed if you want to move forward on a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen because the issues have become increasingly entangled and one needs to be settled, if you want to settle the other. That doesn't mean that you want to settle them all together and you want to make a big mess out of it. You want to settle them separately, but you want to make sure that there is de-escalation on the ground in the Red Sea but also regionally in order to pave the way for a possibility of moving on the peace process in Yemen. 

The peace process in Yemen is not an easy task, it will require perseverance. It will require time as well, but we have a basis for that.  We have commitments from the parties and we have a firm understanding and knowledge and also set up together with the parties on what needs to be achieved in order to reach that political process and that is what I will start working on, on the basis of this de-escalation that we've seen in the Red Sea. 

That said, we haven't seen a full de-escalation. There are still concerning attacks against Israel and retaliatory strikes and that needs to be factored in as well in the broader schemes of things. Thanks. 

Any other questions? If not, then thank you all.