RIYADH — The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen rejected on Sunday a UN report as “imbalanced and does not rely on credible statistics. “
“The report is imbalanced and does not rely on credible statistics, nor does it serve the Yemeni people, “ coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Assiri told the official Saudi Press Agency.
“It misleads the public with incorrect numbers and mostly relies on information from sources associated with the Houthi militia and the deposed (former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah) Saleh, “ he said.
The report was released on Thursday by the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It slammed both the coalition and rebel forces for a “very large number of violations “ including “attacks on schools and hospitals “.
Gen. Assiri said the coalition was in Yemen to “protect the Yemeni people, including children, from the actions of the Houthi militia. “
He cited a $30 million Saudi aid program for Yemen launched in cooperation with the UN children's fund (UNICEF).
Gen. Assiri hoped that the United Nations would remain on the side of the Yemeni people and would not seek through its reports to equate the legitimacy to the coup.
Assiri stressed that what is stated in the United Nations report, “which claimed that the coalition has committed violations “ contradicts the resolutions of the United Nations itself.
He said that one among the most important objectives of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen is the protection of the Yemeni people including children from the practices of Houthi militias in the presence of internationally recognized legitimate government which was affirmed by the United Nations Resolution No. 2216.
Regarding the report's equating the coalition forces and Houthi militias, Gen. Assiri commented in an interview with Al-Arabiya. Net, saying, “The report regrettably equates international legitimacy and the legitimacy of the government with militias, who are a major cause of Yemen’s instability and chaos, and the United Nations, which should be supporting the legitimacy of the Yemeni government and deal with it for its information, instead has based its report from sources close to Houthi militias and this is misleading Yemeni and international public opinions.”
The coalition spokesman said, “Regrettably, the report did not show the figures provided by the legitimate Yemeni government that highlights the use of children by Houthi militias in combat and did not highlight the number of children killed in combat, planting mines and transferring ammunition and explosives.”
“The report is imbalanced, does not depend on reliable statistics, does not serve the Yemeni people and misleads public opinions with incorrect figures, most of them depend on information taken from parties affiliated with Houthi militias and deposed Saleh in a clear contradiction with the United Nations resolution, which criminalizes the coup and the rebels and recognizes the legitimacy of the Yemeni government.”
Gen. Assiri said: “We hope that the United Nations values the coalition's efforts in maintaining the legitimacy of Yemen and in getting all parties to the negotiating table to reach a political solution in Yemen, according to the UN resolution.”
He added, “The coalition hopes the United Nations would focus on the care of funded programs by King Salman Center, develop its procedures positively so the programs' goals can be achieved, most notably the protection of citizens and the delivery of relief and medical supplies to them and intensify its communication with the legitimate Yemeni government and the coalition's command for the success of the ongoing consultations in Kuwait, rather than issuing such negative reports. “
In separate comments to a Saudi daily newspaper, he said Ban's report would not help peace talks under way in Kuwait, and would “complicate the mission “ of the UN's envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Gulf Research Center rebuffs
UN report on Yemen
Dr. Abdulaziz Bin Othman Bin Saqr, president of the Gulf Research Center, said the killing of Yemeni civilians, particularly children, results from arbitrary shelling from rebel forces on civilian-populated areas in Yemen.
He attributed this to lack of precision of the rebels’ weapons used in the battle, adding that the rebels’ strategy was based on attacking civilians while exploiting the lack of strict and impartial international monitoring authority that could pinpoint the attacker and hold him responsible.
He lashed out at the UN report on Yemen, describing the report was lacking in reliable sources of information. He cited the cruel crimes committed by Iran's puppet forces in other areas of conflict in Syria and Iraq, questioning whether the UN monitors are aware of this.
He added that the objective of the coalition forces is to defend the civilians and not to harm them. He said that the coalition forces’ humanitarian intentions are clear for the world to see, citing the relief and humanitarian assistance being delivered to the needy in Yemen in millions of dollars. — SG/SPA
