Yemenis should close ranks to face challenges - Hadi

Riyadh: President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi called on the Yemeni people to close ranks in order to overcome the current challenges for the sake of security, peace and harmony, and move away from the rhetoric of arms and alien agendas.

“Yemen’s security is an integral part of the region whose actors are working with us to create stability and restore hope, reconstruction and development,” Hadi said while receiving the advisory committee of the Riyadh Dialogue Conference on Tuesday.

He hailed the patriotism shown by members of the committee in establishing the pillars of justice, security and stability and their solid stand against practices of the coup forces who were trying to impose a foreign agenda on Yemeni society.

He briefed the audience on the latest military and political developments in Yemen, particularly victories and advances of the national army and the Popular Resistance in different parts of the country.

“We are advocates of peace ... we didn’t declare the war ... [it was] was imposed on us and on our people by the coup militias, which went too far in their attempts to undermine the security and stability of Yemen and neighnouring countries by implementing the alien agenda of well-known foreign forces,” he added.

Hadi lauded efforts being made by the international community and the UN Special Envoy for Yemen to work out a mechanism to implement the UN Security Council resolution 2216.

“We only want to stop the bloodshed our people are enduring as a result of hostile practices of these militias against civilians and innocent children and women. We want that despite [the fact that] our people [have seen] painful experiments of [broken] promises,” Hadi concluded.

Hadi on Tuesday also met with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and members of the German Federal Parliament (the Bundestag), in Riyadh.

During the meeting, he reviewed the crisis in Yemen, especially after the start of a comprehensive national dialogue process, which did not exclude anyone and was attended by various political groups and civil society organisations.

The Qatar News Agency, QNA, reported that he pointed out that the dialogue provided solutions to the problems that were plaguing Yemen, adding that it was approved by the document of the national dialogue embodied in the new draft constitution, which is based on justice, equality and good governance, and not on exclusion, marginalisation and monopolising of power and wealth. But Al Houthis and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh did not like it and turned against the interests of the Yemeni people and the result of the national dialogue and stormed the capital Sana’a and other provinces and cities using arms looted from the security and military institutions.

For their part, members of the German Federal Parliament expressed their support for the Yemeni president, reconfirming that their country will provide support and assistance to Yemen, and stressing the need to implement Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2216.