Foreign Secretary hosted meeting on Yemen

29 Nov 2017 03:41 PM

The Foreign Secretary hosted a meeting on Tuesday 28 November to continue the UK’s work to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Yemen.

The meeting was attended by Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia (Adel Al Jubeir), United Arab Emirates (Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed), Oman (Yusuf bin Alawi), the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon and UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. The meeting of key stakeholders, known as the ‘Quint’, is part of the main, multilateral process aimed at achieving a long-term political solution to the conflict in Yemen.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

The UK is hosting this important forum on Yemen because it is vital that we redouble efforts to work towards a sustainable political solution to the conflict. Since the beginning of the crisis the UK has played a leading role in diplomatic efforts and we will continue to do so.

The people who are suffering most from this conflict are the people of Yemen. This is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and largest ever cholera outbreak. The UK is the fourth largest humanitarian donor to Yemen, and we have increased our funding this year to £155 million.

I welcome the steps taken towards reopening the ports of Hodeidah and Salif and the resumption of UN flights to Sana’a airport. The UK will continue to press for humanitarian and commercial access to be restored to all ports, so that the already dire humanitarian situation does not deteriorate further. We will also be taking forward the UN-led diplomatic process, as well as reviewing the security situation including the recent attempted ballistic missile strike.

The UK is leading diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in Yemen

A communique was issued following the meeting:

Communique MS Word Document, 14.7KB

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