UN authorizes monitoring of Yemen cease-fire in key port
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize a U.N. mission to monitor implementation of a cease-fire and the withdrawal of rival forces from Yemen’s key port of Hodeida agreed to by the government and Houthi Shiite rebels.
The agreement, if fully implemented, could offer a potential breakthrough in Yemen’s four-year civil war, which has brought the Arab world’s poorest country to the brink of starvation and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The British-drafted resolution establishes a United Nations political mission to oversee implementation of the cease-fire and redeployment of forces agreement that was reached by the warring parties in Stockholm on Dec. 13. It gives a green light for up to 75 U.N. monitors to be deployed for an initial period of six months.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce called it “an important moment for the U.N.” to solidify the Stockholm agreement.