The UN Security Council was unable on Friday to agree on a Russian-drafted statement demanding an immediate ceasefire or at least humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Yemen. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin criticized the 15-member council, saying fellow envoys showed "amazing indecision" in the face of the worsening humanitarian situation in Yemen.
"If you cannot agree to a motherhood-and-apple-pie statement, what can you agree on? I don't understand," Churkin told reporters following the meeting. Russia had requested the meeting after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Thursday that dire fuel shortages were threatening to bring all relief operations to a halt "within days." Diplomats said the Russian statement was not rejected out of hand during the closed-door meeting but that the delegations needed time to consider the wording. "There was a strong degree of council agreement on the desperate humanitarian situation in Yemen and need to return to political talks, but no agreement in the room on the exact working of the statement," said a diplomat.
"Discussions are ongoing," the diplomat said. Russia's diplomacy has been greeted with some degree of suspicion given the country's close ties to Iran, which is supporting the Huthi rebels who have seized the capital Sanaa and forced Yemen's president into exile.
The Mauritanian diplomat was appointed to replace Jamal Benomar, who resigned after losing the support of Gulf states. Talks collapsed after the Shia Huthi rebels went on the offensive, seizing Sanaa and advancing on Aden, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile to Saudi Arabia. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched an air war on Yemen on March 26 to prevent the Huthi rebels from taking the entire territory and to restore Hadi's authority.
Churkin said his government was "very concerned" by the crisis in Yemen and accused Saudi Arabia of showing little interest in resuming peace talks. "We support negotiations but we don't see an interest on the part of those who are engaged in bombing," Churkin said.
UN efforts to resume peace negotiations for Yemen have run into hurdles over disagreements on the venue for the talks, with Gulf countries insisting they be held in Riyadh. Churkin said the talks should take place in a "neutral territory," suggesting that they could be held in Geneva, a proposal backed by other Security Council members.
Diplomats said Feltman told the council that Ban was considering holding an international peace conference on Yemen to re-launch talks. The month-long air strikes in Yemen have crippled deliveries of fuel, food and medicine while all airports are closed to civilian traffic and naval shipments are delayed. Ban has called for an immediate ceasefire and said, short of that, there should be humanitarian pauses in areas affected by the fighting.