It should be noted that this ancient country, with its civilization, its history, and the suffering of its people, must once again stand before us and ask: for how long? For twelve full years, its great people have lived under instability and a prolonged crisis, while political calculations have extended this suffering and deprived Yemen’s children of a normal life. A whole generation was born under war, and grew up between hunger, fear and weapons, learning the alphabet of pain before learning the alphabet of childhood. For twelve full years, Yemen’s children have lost a world that today stands with the Yemenis only in adding to their misery, while the coup by the Houthi terrorist militias against the State of Yemen has continued, after twelve full years of war, deprivation, recruitment of children, confiscation of rights, freedoms and resources.
The Yemeni Government has dealt responsibly with the various international and regional initiatives, and has made major concessions in good faith for the sake of bringing peace and ending the suffering of the Yemeni people. Meanwhile, the Houthi militias met those efforts with obstinacy, and turned the truce into an opportunity to expand their military fronts at the expense of citizens’ livelihoods. The latest of these efforts was what had been undertaken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman to formulate a road map towards peace, while the Houthi militias met it by escalating in the Red Sea and obstructing it, and the Yemeni Government welcomed it, but the militias transformed the security of one of the world’s most important maritime passages, Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea, into a bargaining chip used by Iran to export its influence and negotiations to the world.
There is no room for doubt that if this coup has been able to continue all these years and extend to neighbouring States and international waterways, it is because of the support that the Houthi militias receive from the Iranian regime in weapons, expertise and military technologies. The world has long hesitated in designating the Houthis as a terrorist group, and gave them a precious opportunity to consolidate their influence; when leniency is used in the face of an armed group, it only emboldens it. We have seen how firmness in confronting this group is critical, and we value what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by leading the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen, has provided in decisive efforts to deter this group and support the Yemeni Government, thereby contributing to protecting the security and stability of the region and the world.
The Houthi militias have also tested the firmness of the United States administration in dealing with them, and we believe that the right approach is one that understands the nature of this phenomenon accurately. Therefore, we appreciate President Trump’s understanding of this equation: the equation of firmness, which is the only language understood by the terrorist group. We also appreciate every friendly State that stands in that firm position.
International legitimacy and its resolutions are with us, and we reaffirm that peace cannot be made by resolutions alone, but by will. Peace is not the absence of war; it is not an endless marathon of negotiations that produces nothing but more terrorism. What is needed is a firm hand that deters those who threaten the security of States and their stability, so that Iran’s agenda is not allowed to override the interests of Yemen and the Yemenis, or our battle with the world.
The threat to maritime security, and to one of the world’s most vital waterways, begins in Tehran before reaching Bab al-Mandab, and is represented in the sectarian ideological thinking and expansionist ambition that have long shaped Iranian behaviour. To address manifestations without addressing results is not enough, for the Houthis in Yemen are not the beginning of the story but one of the manifestations of a comprehensive project that transcends borders. What the Houthi militias are undertaking in Yemen does not require more concessions; as the world has become reassured, what is required is a serious stand against this Iranian militia. The threat to international peace and security is no longer confined to Yemen alone, after its ambitions have crossed beyond it. It is no longer possible to build security in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden as long as it remains hostage to the will of a militia linked to an external project.
Iranian support is not the only thing that heightens the danger of this militia, the Iranian arm’s-length militia; there is also a wider international gateway that benefits from every step it takes, and that gateway is the direct and indirect support networks and the use of mercenaries. The years have proven that this danger extends across the region and beyond, and that in the absence of deterrence and amid the language of appeasement, the threat persists beyond the borders of States and grows at Yemen’s borders and in the Red Sea, nourished by organized smuggling networks, Iranian groups and militias, and networks of trafficking and organized crime, thereby threatening States and international security.
Restoring the sovereignty of the Yemeni State and securing Bab al-Mandab are two inseparable issues. Supporting the Yemeni Government and strengthening its economic, security and military capacities are one path, and protecting this vital waterway is a regional and international responsibility in which Yemen alone cannot bear the burden. Every State whose economy depends on freedom of navigation bears responsibility for these threats and for piracy. The safe path to secure this waterway cannot be achieved so long as a militia remains in control beyond the State and outside it, because the issue is not solely Yemeni; rather, it directly concerns the protection of one of the most important maritime passages.
As we commend the initiative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and appreciate the efforts made by the Special Envoy and the brotherly countries, the protection of maritime navigation and the security of the region cannot be achieved while Yemen is denied the return to stability, supplies, exports, and the freedom of safe passage through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The world has from this platform been repeatedly told what should be clear to them: there can be no security against evil, and no lasting stability, so long as this painful scene remains in Yemen, with all its devastation, misery, and open wound, in a region of such strategic importance to the world, with its internal and external dimensions, at a cost to development, with military formations, displacement, victims, and conflict, and with the suffering of Yemenis and the fragmentation of the Yemeni political map. There, on the other side, the armed Yemeni groups, and behind them those lying in wait for the security of the region or for the world, are present in Sana’a, Sa’dah, Hudaydah, and Dhamar, while the world looks on; and in the field, the scenes of the Yemen tragedy are all too visible, and I am among those who speak on behalf of the people, the earth, sovereignty, the future, and dignity.
Ladies and gentlemen, had our people wished to surrender to the dark fate and to withdraw from their State, that would have been easier for us; but because we shall not abandon our State, and because we shall not relinquish our matter and our right, the armed coup has prolonged the collapse. More than ten years have passed without every hand being extended to Yemen, a great country, despite the potential it possessed, and today the Iranian militias still believe that they are striking at Yemen through the latest criminal wave in our country and from among us. Yet our suffering and your suffering are one, and our battle has never been for Yemen alone, nor for its future alone. Rather, our battle is against schemes or agendas beyond the State and its institutions. Our battle has been against the overthrow of the State by Iran’s agents. The suffering is that of all Yemenis. We struggle for the sake of all of us together, and for the States and the nation as a whole. Yemen cannot accept the injury of any one of its sons, nor can our struggle be against those who are not aggressors; rather, it is so that Yemen may be rebuilt, prosper, secure its rights, and preserve its life, dignity, future, and decision, so that Yemen may remain the State, the human being, freedom, the future, and sovereignty.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Yemenis do not ask the world to fight their battle or to restore their State for them. What we ask is that the international community fulfil its responsibilities, that it understand the seriousness of the Houthi project and its manifestations, that it not create peace at gunpoint or make concessions in the face of militias, and that it support the Yemeni Government seriously in putting an end to the danger of the Houthi gatherings, restoring protection to its ports and maritime passages. This is what we want from the international community, not a policy of appeasement that endangers Yemen, the region, and international peace and security. We want a Yemen free and at peace, a Yemen of work, similar to the rest of the world, a Yemen for partnership and cooperation; that is the Yemen we want the world to see, not Yemen as a state of war and a project for one party at the expense of Yemenis and their institutions.
Distinguished guests, our region, the focus of security, the Arab island, and the Horn of Africa, have for years depended on restoring the role of their States. They are determined not to remain permanently exposed to crises, but rather to strengthen security in their States, peoples, sovereignty, and future.
Again, we affirm to the world, and to the Yemenis and the international and regional community, our full support for the State, and we also affirm Yemen’s standing in the Kingdom’s conscience, given the reliance placed upon it. For this, in all frankness, and on behalf of our Government, we express our great appreciation and gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, his Government and institutions, for the Kingdom’s leadership of the Arab coalition, and we call upon the world that the Kingdom shall continue to be a steadfast support for the sake of Yemen’s security and prosperity, and that its role will remain present in the memory of the Yemeni people and in the conscience of the Yemeni human being. Yemen can give to the world when it regains its security and prosperity.
As for our Yemeni people, we renew our affirmation before the world that Yemen will remain steadfast, investing its history and sacrificing its present and future in order to consolidate the values of justice, peace and human dignity in our region and in the world.
I express our gratitude, in this firm forum, for the appreciated role of the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its leadership and people, and the burdens it has borne alongside Yemen and its people, from the beginning of the Iranian aggression through its militias against our country, and from the phase of supporting legitimacy to the targeting of the territory of the Kingdom, its people, its land and its sacred sites, in defense of the security of the Two Holy Mosques, the blessed sanctuary, and the protection of its land, its airspace, its capabilities and its peoples.
The Republic of Yemen renews its steadfast support for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of their independent State with East Jerusalem as its capital, and for all efforts aimed at ending the suffering of the Palestinian people.
We express our concern at and support for the suffering of the Yemeni people, and we condemn the crimes of the Iranian-backed terrorist militias against civilians and the obstruction and piracy they have practiced against humanitarian organizations; for they have caused the aggravation of human suffering for the sake of extortion and domination.
Peace and justice, for Yemenis inside and outside, are a memorial to all the Yemenis in their homes, their displacement and their exile. As the delegate said, and as the Yemeni poet Abdullah Al-Baraduni affirmed, “From the most dangerous things that happened to Yemen is that it no longer belongs to itself, but to Iran and to those attached to it, the wanderers.” And as has been said: “Yesterday belongs to the sword and the people, and tomorrow belongs to the people and the sword.” Long live free Yemen, secure, for every people of the world, and let there dawn in the world a secure life for our great Yemeni people, a path to justice.
We express our appreciation to the United Nations, its Secretary-General and his Special Envoy and all its agencies, for their efforts for the sake of the peace for which we have all longed… it must come, and it has great peace and great meaning, and we renew the covenant to the United Nations concerning it.
Yemen will remain secure and prosperous, open to life and to the peoples, free from those who bargain over it and trade in it, before the United Nations and the world.
We also value the positions of brothers, friends and allies in support of Yemen, backing efforts to restore the State, peace and stability, the references, and support for all efforts directed at achieving a comprehensive political settlement, the protection of civilians, and the establishment of humanitarian access.
Time will remain our witness, and greater and more enduring our struggle and our steadfastness in the pledge.