Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi has on Thursday fully rejected violations made by UN Envoy Martin Griffiths, which he said would blow chances for a political solution in Yemen.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Hadi considered the briefing made by Griffiths to the UN Security Council on May 15 as an example of the flagrant violation of the mandate granted to the UN envoy.
He accused Griffiths of praising a war criminal, Abdul Malak Al-Houthi, and depicting him as a peace dove.
“Griffiths insists on dealing with Houthi (militias) as a fait accompli government, and as an equivalent to the legitimate government,” the Yemeni President said in his letter.
Hadi added that Griffiths has also accepted a unilateral redeployment by the Houthis without any monitoring by the UN and the legitimate government.
In his letter, the Yemeni President accused Griffiths of sidestepping Security Council Resolution 2216.
“We can no longer accept the ongoing violations committed by the UN envoy,” he said, adding that Griffiths turned his back to the case of prisoners and hostages, and other important issues over his decision to partially implement the Stockholm deal, which was struck between Yemen’s warring sides in December.
In his briefing last week, the UN envoy said that General Michael Lollesgaard and his team from the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement confirmed that Houthis were fully compliant throughout the withdrawal and that they were very cooperative.
Last December, Griffiths brokered the ceasefire agreement and troop withdrawal from the ports of Hodeidah, Al Salef and Ras Isa during the peace talks in Sweden between the Yemeni legitimate government and the Houthis.
