Yemen's Hadi: force Houthis to abide by UN resolutions

Yemen president tells United Nations General Assembly peace is only possible if Iran does not interfere in its affairs, faking conflicts and stoking violence

Yemen president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in New York. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Yemen president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi on Thursday vowed to continue the fight against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who have brought death and destruction to the state.

“We are ending our third year of the war imposed on our country by the Houthis,” Mr Hadi said at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. “The rebels have swept the cities of Yemen and taken the entire country hostage, all the while implementing an Iranian strategy” in the conflict.

The Yemen government were seeking “sustainable peace; fair and strong that cannot relapse and that lays the foundation for a real state that guarantees long-lasting” solutions. However, he said that in the rebels they were facing a particularly difficult enemy.

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“Our problem is not a political difference that can be negotiated; it's not even a coup. It goes beyond this. It's a difference between philosophies and ideologies. Sects that believe God has granted them superiority and a right to rule. [The Houthis] go against all human values.”

Mr Hadi spoke of the militias destroying all the state's institutions, lamenting that the “private sector has disappeared; and school curricula have been replaced with extremist [material].

“These militia receive full support in kind and weapons from Iran, the state that has determined to destabilise our region. Peace is only possible if Iran doesn't interfere in our affairs, faking conflicts and stoking violence,” he told the chamber.

The militias been also been supplied with long range missiles by Iran, and were refusing to endorse initiatives, led by the United Nations and endorsed by regional powers such as Kuwait, that would lead to peace.

Mr Hadi also accused the rebels of even trying to assassinate an international peace envoy, as well as “threatening our brothers in the UAE [by] using their rockets to attack them.”

Praising the support given to them by Saudi Arabia, Mr Hadi called for the UN to force the rebels to implement UN resolutions, to allow humanitarian assistance to reach all the areas of the country.

He also struck a conciliatory tone when he said that his government would “build a new Yemen that embraces all its children” and promised to provide humanitarian assistance for all areas of Yemen, including rebel held territories.

“The republic of Yemen rejects all forms of terrorism and hold on tights to tolerant Islamic values,” he told the assembled delegates.