[03/04/2019 08:06]

RIYADH-SABA
Minister of Foreign Affairs Khaled al-Yemany held a meeting on Wednesday with Ambassadors of the Group 19; countries sponsoring peace process in Yemen, on Hodeida's situations regarding failure of implementing Stockholm agreement due to Houthi plots.

Al-Yemany confirmed that Houthi militia has been hindering the implementation of Stockholm agreement for four months of declaring it and rejects releasing all prisoners and kidnapped people as stipulated by the agreement.

Thanking efforts of Group 19 for supporting the government, al-Yemany renewed government's support to the UN efforts for realizing peace on the bases of the three references; the GCC Initiative, the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference and the UN Resolution 2216.

He confirmed that President Hadi has been clear during a meeting with the UN Envoy to Yemen on making timetable for implementing Hodeida's agreement but the sponsors of the agreement (UN envoy's office and UN mission in Hodeida) failed in providing timed action plan for implementing the agreement.

On the contrary, they indulged in splitting the agreement into small and smaller steps, allowing Houthis to play with the Stockholm agreement as a whole, he asserted.

He stressed significance of the role of the ambassadors in monitoring the political process in Yemen through reports they provide to their governments on what has been happening on the ground and showing approach of the UN envoy and the Head of the UN Mission for Redeploying in Hodeida for splitting the agreement.

He confirmed that the UN envoy's brief he will present to the Security Council mid of this April should be clear and name the party hindering the agreement and shoulder him the responsibility and should not repeat the same approach of naming multiple parties standing behind the failure in Hodeida.

He called on the sponsoring countries of peace process to take quick action for implementing Hodeida Agreement on the bases of the UNSC's resolutions 2451 and 2452 as the government believes that the failure of implementing the agreement is likely.

" There is no way but implementing the agreement by Houthi militia and leaving Hodeida as necessary step for building confidence and then will lead to implementing consultations for peaceful solution in Yemen," said al-Yemany.
He repeated call to the sponsoring countries of implementing peace process for exerting more pressure on Houthi militia to surrender to the UN resolutions and implement Stockholm agreement's articles.

For his part, Governor of the Central Bank of Yemen Hafez Mi'yad has confirmed that the bank is currently focusing on the stability of the local currency and resuming the legal mechanisms approved by international specifications on banking transfers process and resuming financial roles of banking sector and regaining it from black markets for promoting fighting money laundering financing terrorism.

He confirmed that the government has taken a package of decisions aiming at improving economic situation and supporting the value of the Yemeni Rial and the most important decision has been decision No 75 for 2018 for limiting smuggling of Iranian oil used by Houthi militia for financing its war against Yemeni people (getting free of charge oil and selling them in black markets.)

"Four months since implementing this mechanism, Houthis gathered merchants in Sana'a for banning them dealing with state mechanism of credit letters provided by the Central Bank and threatened taking severe measures against anyone trying to deal with the new mechanism," he said.

"They actually arrested some merchants and their relatives aiming for cancelling banks' measures and resorting to Iranian oil," added Mi'yadh.

He made it clear that Houthi militia banned banks in their held-areas from applying for credits to import food goods and imprisoned some banks' employees.

He added that they have been working on taking great measures to provide food imports to Houthi held-areas.

For their parts, the Ambassadors of Group 19 renewed their support to political process and efforts of the UN envoy, praising positive reaction of the government for implementing Stockholm agreement and showed readiness to provide facilitations for realizing this purpose.

They confirmed their support to the government for realizing economic stability for alleviating severe humanitarian situation.

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