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French Ambassador to Yemen: Houthis’ Obstacles Hinder Solution

French Ambassador to Yemen Jean-Marie Safa during his meeting with Yemeni President Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, in March 2023 (Twitter)
French Ambassador to Yemen Jean-Marie Safa during his meeting with Yemeni President Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, in March 2023 (Twitter)
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French Ambassador to Yemen: Houthis’ Obstacles Hinder Solution

French Ambassador to Yemen Jean-Marie Safa during his meeting with Yemeni President Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, in March 2023 (Twitter)
French Ambassador to Yemen Jean-Marie Safa during his meeting with Yemeni President Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, in March 2023 (Twitter)

French Ambassador to Yemen Jean-Marie Safa said that the Houthis were their own enemies, warning the Iranian-backed group of the growing gap with the Yemeni people. He also stressed that negotiations were in their interest, pointing to a “historic opportunity” to achieve peace in the country.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Safa highlighted some obstacles put in place by the Houthis in the recent peace efforts, especially in the issue of salaries.

He emphasized the presence of a consensus within the Security Council to support the role of the UN envoy to Yemen, and to launch a comprehensive internal political process under the auspices of the United Nations.

Safa - one of the most active ambassadors in the Yemeni file and who has extensive knowledge of the complexities of the crisis - believes that the Yemeni people have the ability to withstand, and the youth were open to the world, unlike the Houthi project, which he described as “reactionary”.

The ambassador stressed that France supports the Saudi-Omani efforts, which provide a favorable environment for the international endeavor, indicating that the Saudi-Iranian agreement had a positive impact on the Yemeni file.

According to Safa, there is no intention to issue a new Security Council resolution on Yemen. He noted that the priority was to revive an intra-Yemeni political process under UN auspices.

He also affirmed that France strongly supports the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, and commends his constant commitment and efforts to achieve peace, especially after the tangible results represented in the decline of violence in the country after the truce that took place in April 2022.

Houthis’ obstacles

The French ambassador to Yemen explained that the peace process needed more time due to some obstacles on the part of the Houthis, especially in the issue of salaries.

“The process needs some time. There are many issues, including salaries. There are still some problems because of the extremist Houthi group, and negotiations with them are always difficult. I hope that pragmatism within the group prevails over the ideological wing. This is necessary to reach a comprehensive and complete political solution under the auspices of the United Nations,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Safa noted that the peace negotiations were in the interest of the Houthis.

He explained: “The Yemenis know exactly what is happening in their country. They know that the Houthis waged an economic war against legitimacy. This halted oil exports. The people are also aware that the group has gained billions of dollars through the port of Hodeidah and others, while the economic situation in their areas has deteriorated... This means that the gap between the Houthis and the people is growing day by day, and the Houthis’ interest lies in the negotiations.”

The ambassador, however, pointed to the Yemeni people’s resilience.

“When I visited Aden a month and a half ago, where France opened a space for young people, I saw their enthusiasm because they want to communicate with the world and modernity, in contrast to the reactionary Houthi project,” he remarked.

No moderates among the Houthis

According to Safa, the Houthi group is experiencing a factional struggle between pragmatists and ideologues, in the absence of moderates - as he put it.

“The conflicting statements are evidence of the existence of different wings within the group, especially the pragmatic wing as opposed to the ideological wing. I always say that the Houthis are their own enemies because of their ideologues,” he stated.

“Nevertheless, we hope that the pragmatic current within the group will expand. Because they support the idea of negotiations. Ideologues, on the other hand, favor the military option, extremism and war. Therefore, we hope that the pragmatic wing will prevail over the ideological wing for the sake of the country and the people, and for the benefit of the Houthis themselves,” the ambassador told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Saudi-Omani efforts

Safa affirmed that France supports the Saudi-Omani efforts, which he said provide a conducive environment for the international endeavor to resolve the crisis.

“Because of Houthi extremism and intransigence, there are obstacles to achieving peace. We hope, with time, to reach solutions to all issues and establish an intra-Yemeni political process under the auspices of the UN envoy,” he said.

The French ambassador also noted that the Saudi-Iranian agreement had a positive impact on the Yemeni file, hoping that this would push the Houthis towards the right direction and soften their stance.

In response to a question about an intention to issue a new Security Council resolution pertaining to Yemen, Safa indicated that this was not on the table at the present time.

“So far, a new resolution is not on the agenda of the Security Council. Today, the priority is to revive the intra-Yemeni political process under the auspices of the United Nations,” he stated.

 

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.