UN Special Envoy Griffiths Urges Reaching Agreement On Local Security Forces In Yemen Soon

The warring parties in Yemen should muster the political will to reach an agreement on local security forces at the earliest opportunity, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said during a UN Security Council on Thursday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2019) The warring parties in Yemen should muster the political will to reach an agreement on local security forces at the earliest opportunity, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said during a UN Security Council on Thursday.

"A major hurdle remains: An agreement on local security forces," Griffiths said. "I am going to redouble my efforts with the parties in the coming weeks to come up with an agreement on this issue; I am calling on all the parties to muster the needed political will to make this happen as soon as possible."

Last December, the conflict parties attended UN-brokered peace talks in Stockholm, Sweden, and concluded a ceasefire agreement for the port city of Al Hudaydah.

Griffiths said during the most recent joint meeting of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) - the first meeting in such a format since February - the parties to the conflict agreed on the operational details of all redeployment reflected in the Stockholm Agreement.

"This is an important breakthrough and an encouraging sign of progress," Griffiths said.

From July 14-15, members of the RCC, a body set up by the United Nations to oversee the ceasefire in Yemen, convened for a joint meeting aboard a UN vessel to discuss steps on the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement.

The armed conflict in Yemen between government forces, led by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthis has been ongoing since 2015. The United Nations has repeatedly called the Yemeni conflict the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 24 million people - more than 80 percent of the country's population - currently in need of aid.