By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 27 — In a UN announcement about Yemen on Saturday morning the other shoe dropped and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed to replace Jamal Benomar as envoy. Then on Monday, the UN Security Council heard Benomar’s last briefing; Russia’s Ambassador Churkin spoke to the press as he left the Council.
Churkin said, “They were very close. Only as far as I can tell from his description of the situation. They agreed on a whole series of arrangements for settling the political crisis. The only remaining issue was the way the collective leadership would be structured. The role of president Hadi, how the collective leadership was going to work. So it’s one remaining issue, but it’s a very big issue.”
Of the Saudi-led airstrikes, Churkin said, “We were very unhappy because we knew what the consequences were going to be. We are involved in a major evacuation campaign of Russian citizens and a number of other countries including dozens of American citizens who were taken out of Yemen.”
Switching to Syria, Churkin told the press, “Now there is another very dangerous phenomenon, you can see it in Yemen now, you can see it in Syria, where the terrorist groups are being involved with others to pursue political certain objectives in a military campaign. We see it in Yemen and we see it in Syria, you could read a number of American newspapers over the weekend where they’re describing how the recent military successes of the opposition are explained by the fact that the Free Syrian Army is cooperating with Jabhat al Nusra. So this seems to be a new step in legitimizing terrorist groups in that part of the world.”
Asked if any other Council member(s) also expressed this view, Churkin said “I was the only one who voiced this concern. It happens quite often.”
Later Benomar and the Council’s president for April spoke, but both during the UN’s noon briefing, where Inner City Pro asked more questions, watch this site.