“This war needs to end and it needs to end as quickly as possible”, Kerry said after a meeting in Saudi Arabia with Gulf counterparts, a British minister and the United Nations peace envoy to Yemen.
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He continued “it is high time United States government learned from its egregious errors in Syria and Iraq by realizing existing facts and realities”.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said a meeting Thursday which included Kerry, the U.N.’s Yemen envoy Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed, ministers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and a senior British official “focused on finding a peaceful political solution to end the conflict in Yemen and on the role of the worldwide community”.
Kerry was in Saudi Arabia, where he met with Foreign Affairs Minister Adel al-Jubeir to discuss the 18-month conflict between the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government that has been exiled to Saudi Arabia.
But the final agreement, in broad outline, would initially include the “swift formation of a national unity government with power shared among the parties”.
The conflict escalated past year when Saudi Arabia launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.
The Houthis still maintain control of Sanaa.
Since the conflict broke out in March 2015, more than 3.1 million Yemenis have been displaced and more than 80 percent of the country-or 21 million people-are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“I have to say that, to date, the global response to this crisis has fallen short of filling the gap between the supplies that are available and those that are required”, Kerry said before announcing almost $189 million in additional humanitarian assistance.
If a settlement cannot be reached that respects Saudi sovereignty and security while providing Yemen’s Houthi minority a role in government, “then things can only go in one direction, and that is worse in Yemen”, Kerry warned.
The continuous air campaign came amid a flurry of meetings between Kerry, Saudi King Salman and other key players that focused on Yemen and Syria.
In a new report, it laid out a long list of allegations of grave human rights abuses by all sides in the war.
During the press conference, however, Kerry did not mention those concerns.
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Kristine Beckerle, a Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that by continuing to sell weapons to the kingdom, the United States “isn’t just signaling support for Saudi Arabia, it is in fact supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen”.
