Alimi Calls on Int'l Community to Adopt New Approach towards Yemen

President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi addresses the UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday, September 22, 2022. (EPA)
President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi addresses the UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday, September 22, 2022. (EPA)
TT

Alimi Calls on Int'l Community to Adopt New Approach towards Yemen

President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi addresses the UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday, September 22, 2022. (EPA)
President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi addresses the UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday, September 22, 2022. (EPA)

President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad al-Alimi called on the international community to adopt a new approach towards Yemen and end the humanitarian suffering caused by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias.

Delivering his speech at the high-level debate of the General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Alimi said that the transformative solutions adopted by the UN General Assembly require consolidating clear values of peace-building based on a stable government and a decisive deterrent to protect and facilitate the political process.

He called for finding alternative options that are equivalent to the power of deterrence as long as fears that the use of force will disrupt fragile attempts to reach calm and the terrorist designation will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe remain.

Alimi suggested that the international community backs the legitimate government so that the values ​​of freedom, peace and coexistence prevail, SABA news agency reported.

He also urged the international community to condemn Iran’s interventions in his country’s affairs and called on member states to abide by the UN arms embargo and prevent it from providing its militias with military technologies, such as ballistic missiles and drones that are used in terrorist acts against civilians in Yemen and other regional countries.

As the humanitarian truce is coming to an end, Alimi affirmed that the Yemeni government has adhered to all the elements of the armistice, namely operating regular commercial flights to Sanaa Airport and facilitating the entry of oil derivatives ships to the ports of Hodeidah, in an effort to alleviate the suffering of Yemenis.

He stressed, however, that the militias continue to block the roads of Taiz and other governorates, refuse to pay the salaries of their employees or release prisoners and detainees.

Alimi added that the militias are also trying to find any pretext to thwart the truce and obstruct UN efforts to renew it and build on it to achieve the aspired comprehensive peace.



Abbas Denounces Israeli Gaza Offensive at UN, Insists: 'We Will Not Leave'

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024.   REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
TT

Abbas Denounces Israeli Gaza Offensive at UN, Insists: 'We Will Not Leave'

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024.   REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The head of the Palestinian Authority denounced Israel and its offensive in the Gaza Strip in front of world leaders Thursday, appealing to other nations to stop what he called a “genocidal war” against a place and people he said had been totally destroyed.
Mahmoud Abbas used the rostrum of the UN General Assembly as he typically does — to criticize Israel. But this was the first time he did so since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
Abbas strode to the podium to loud applause and a few unintelligible shouts. His first words were a sentence repeated three times: “We will not leave. We will not leave. We will not leave.”
He accused Israel of destroying Gaza and making it unlivable. And he said that his government should govern post-war Gaza as part of an independent Palestinian state, a vision that Israel’s hardline government rejects.
“Palestine is our homeland. It is the land of our fathers and our grandfathers. It will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it would be the occupying usurpers," The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
A nationwide series of campus protests against Israel's operations in Gaza swept the United States in the spring and largely originated at Columbia University, about 70 blocks north of the United Nations.
“The American people are marching in the streets in these demonstrations. We are appreciative of them," Abbas said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry.

Abbas spent big chunks of his speech at the United Nations talking about the state of life in Gaza, and he painted a bleak picture.
"Entire family names have been written out of the civil record," he said. "Gaza is no longer fit for life. Most homes have been destroyed. The same applies for most buildings. ... Roads. Churches. Mosques. Water plants. Electric plants. Sanitation plants. Anyone who has gone to Gaza and known it before would not recognize it anymore.”
Among his demands, none of which are new: A full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — not “buffer zones.” Allowing Gaza's displaced Palestinians — an estimated 90% of the population — to return to their homes. And a central role for Abbas' government in any future Gaza.
“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”