President of the Leadership Council before the Sustainable Development Summit: The militia war has set Yemen back decades

  New York

His Excellency President Dr. Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi, President of the Presidential Leadership Council, said that the war sparked by the Houthi militias supported by the Iranian regime turned development priorities in Yemen upside down. It destroyed the relative economic achievements and gains, and set the country back decades.

In an intervention at the Sustainable Development Summit on Monday, on the sidelines of the meetings of the seventy-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the President of the Presidential Leadership Council called for more pressure on the militias to end politicizing humanitarian files, stressing that this is “no less important than the relief assistance itself.”

His Excellency said, "I am pleased to share with you this high-level dialogue on the Sustainable Development Agenda, in which the Republic of Yemen is lagging behind in fulfilling its obligations under the pressure of compelling war conditions, and the deep humanitarian crisis that the Houthi militias continue to exacerbate for the ninth year with the support of the Iranian regime."

He added, "The war in my country has turned the priorities upside down, bringing some of the development agenda that were necessary in normal circumstances, to the sidelines of the basic needs of food, medicine, water, and electricity, especially in light of the cessation of oil exports for a whole year due to the terrorist attacks by the Houthi militias on export ports and international shipping lines.”

His Excellency the President stressed that talking about a sustainable development agenda that guarantees broad societal participation in decision-making, production, and the use of technology to create job opportunities and improve life, has become impossible in densely populated militia-controlled areas, as these militias considered that soft foreign interference.

In this context, His Excellency referred to his meeting last weekend with a delegation from the Global Alliance for Vaccines in the interim capital, Aden, in preparation for launching a new immunization campaign for children in the liberated governorates, “while the militias continue to prevent the entry of life-saving vaccines into areas under their control, which has led to the recurrence of the spread of deadly epidemics which Yemen had declared free of for nearly two decades.”

His Excellency President Rashad Al-Alimi touched on the repercussions of the war sparked by the Houthi militias and its dire repercussions on various service, development and humanitarian fields, saying that “days ago millions of Yemeni students were back to schools in extremely harsh conditions with the collapse of the government protection network necessary to improve the conditions of the education sector. That sector, from which huge numbers of girls and boys drop out every year and go to the streets in search of work, with scarce sources of livelihood essentially halting.”

He added, "Thus, the warmongers are risking Yemen's present and future, after they destroyed the relative economic achievements and gains achieved over the past decades, as well as deep wounds in the social fabric, tearing apart the institutional structures of the state, and thus setting the country back decades."

His Excellency the President spoke about promising measures and plans for the Presidential Leadership Council and the government in terms of improving services, infrastructure, empowering women, activating the role of law enforcement agencies, and governance of banking and financial activities within a comprehensive reform package coordinated with brothers and friends with the aim of restoring confidence in state institutions and encouraging global solidarity. He added, mobilizing its funds alongside Yemen, its people, and its legitimate institutions.

In this context, He praised the commitment of the brothers in the Alliance to Support Legitimacy, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to support the Presidential Leadership Council and the government on the humanitarian and development agenda.

He expressed his hope that the outcomes of the constructive international dialogue hosted by the United Nations would represent an opportunity to create transformation and put Yemen back on the right track to catch up with sustainable development.