Four days are left before intra-Yemeni talks kickstart under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh. The final touches are being put to the talks’ framework and the three stages that the six axes announced by the GCC Secretary-General in his last statement will go through.
Ismini Palla, Chief of Communications in the Office of the UN Envoy for Yemen, expressed the UN’s hope that the upcoming GCC-sponsored Yemeni consultations in Riyadh would provide “a platform for constructive political dialogue that ultimately supports the efforts of the UN to reach a comprehensive negotiated political settlement for conflict.”
“Ultimately, regional support will be extremely important in order to reach a peaceful settlement of the Yemen conflict,” Palla told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“The conflict in Yemen for more than seven years has caused immense human suffering to millions of women, men and children,” she noted.
“The economy has fallen to new levels of decline, and the conflict has had a disastrous impact on the country's infrastructure and the provision of basic services, as well as causing division and dashed hopes for Yemenis,” added Palla.
“There is no military solution to the Yemeni conflict. It is up to the Yemeni men and women gathered in Riyadh to decide what outcomes they want,” she affirmed.
The UN official explained that the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg seeks to “launch a framework that defines a multi-track process to address the short-term and long-term needs for a sustainable political solution to the conflict.”
“The process will revolve around the political, economic and security tracks,” she revealed.
On March 7, Grundberg started holding organized bilateral consultations with various Yemeni political parties, security experts, economic experts, and civil society representatives.
The meetings aim to enrich the framework and the multi-track process, and to explore the Yemeni participants’ views on guiding principles and their perception of a political settlement that ends the conflict in a sustainable manner.
