UNITED NATIONS, October 15. /TASS/. Stability along waterways around Yemen could be achieved if pressure is applied on members of the coalition that is led by the US and UK over its indiscriminate attacks on the country, Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya said.
"We are convinced that for a real stabilization of the situation in the waters close to Yemen, no less pressure should be exerted on members of the so-called coalition led by the United States and Great Britain, which continues to attack the territory of this sovereign country on a weekly and very indiscriminate basis in violation of the norms of international law. Their subversive activities suggest the idea of ulterior motives, which are obviously far from achieving a genuine settlement in Yemen within the available parameters. However, our Western partners have been working and continue to work in other countries of the region according to a similar playbook," he said at a UN Security Council meeting on Yemen.
Nebenzya reiterated Russia's unchanged support for the safety of international navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the rest of the water areas.
"We call for the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah to stop any actions that impede freedom of navigation and pose a danger to commercial vessels, including fuel tankers. We call for the immediate release of the Galaxy Lida vessel and its crew," he said.
Russia calls upon Western countries to avoid double standards while responding to actions by Yemen’s rebel Ansar Allah movement and Israel’s activities in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon with regards to staffers of international organizations, Nebenzya said.
"It is important to avoid double standards. The desire of certain western countries to sound an alarm about the problems of UN personnel in Yemen is in stark contrast to their reaction - or, rather, almost complete absence of reaction - to the deaths of dozens of UN staff in Gaza as the result of Israeli strikes, and to regular attacks by the IDF on the UNIFIL peacekeepers, who nonetheless continue to discharge their duty," he told the UN Security Council briefing on Yemen.
"It is crucial that our western colleagues extend their principled approach to the situation around UNRWA, which the Israeli authorities are seeking to squeeze out of Palestinian territory. We urge Council members not to allow such egregious and blatant double standards," Nebenzya added.
In his speech, the head of the Russian diplomatic mission expressed his concern regarding the detention by the Ansar Allah movement of locally recruited UN staff in Yemen, mentioning the privileges and immunities of the global organization’s personnel.
"Such steps have a negative impact on the activities of the United Nations and humanitarian workers there, which, as usual, will hit ordinary people first and foremost," Nebenzya said.
In early June, the office of the UN Secretary General said that 11 Yemeni citizens employed by the UN and its agencies, had been detained in the country. Two Yemeni government officials told TASS that Ansar Allah carried out a series of raids in the provinces of Amran, Al Hudaydah, Sa’dah and Sana’a, detaining an unknown number of UN personnel and staffers of several global organizations, including Save the Children and Oxfam.
The confrontation between government forces and the Ansar Allah group has been ongoing in Yemen since August 2014. It entered its most active phase in March 2015, when a Saudi Arabia-led coalition joined the conflict. The civil war in Yemen has caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. According to the UN, more than 24 million Yemenis, or about 80% of the country's population, are in need of humanitarian assistance, and the number of internally displaced persons exceeds 4 million.