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UN Security Council urges all Yemeni parties to "reject violence"

10 August 2011 01:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The UN Security Council on Tuesday voiced concern about the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, urging for all sides "to reject violence and show maximum restraint", APA reports quoting Xinhua

In a press statement read to reporters after a closed-door briefing on the region, Hardeep Singh Puri, Indian UN ambassador and Security Council president of the month, said the Security Council was "deeply concerned at the worsening security situation, including the threat from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula."

"The members of the Security Council urged all sides in Yemen to reject violence and show maximum restraint," said the press statement.

"They called upon all the parties to respect their obligations under applicable international law," the statement said.

The statement also expressed concern about humanitarian access, calling on parties to not target vital infrastructure while citing "serious deterioration of the economic and humanitarian situation. "

"The members of the Security Council also called on all parties to move forward urgently an inclusive, orderly and Yemeni-led process of political transition that meets the needs and aspirations of the Yemeni people for change," said the statement.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has faced protests demanding an immediate end to his 33-year rule for six months. Chieftain of the powerful Hashid Tribes Confederation Sadiq al- Ahmar,who is appointed as the leader of the newly-established tribal alliance, has led month-long pitched street battles by his armed tribesmen against government security forces in Hassab district in downtown Sanaa that flared up in early May following the refusal of Saleh to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) power-transition initiative.

Al-Ahmar, an old ally of Saleh, sided recently with opposition’ s demands of ousting Saleh’s rule. The fighting that left hundreds from both sides dead ended with a Saudi-mediated truce, according to officials from both the Yemeni government and the opposition coalitions.

Meanwhile, Abyan, some 480 km south to the capital Sanaa, is a key stronghold of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The Yemeni government has intensified battles against the terrorist group and using warplanes to try to destroy al-Qaida’s main hideouts in southern provinces since the group took the provincial capital city of Zinjibar late May.