Absurd approaches that push Yemen further away from a possible end to the war

The office of the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, based in the Jordanian capital Amman, hardly stops its activities and events of a sectoral and factional nature that are almost completely separate from the field and its realities that were shaped by the war and the increasing influence of armed forces linked to agendas that are more influential in the region and the world, in light of this insistence on exporting the illusion of establishing peace through flowery statements and the extensive legacy of linguistic promises that those statements contain.

In this article, I will try to approach the UN envoy’s activity with an appropriate degree of neutrality and objectivity, to shed light on the role of this envoy and the United Nations and their ability to achieve peace, in light of this opportunistic coexistence with the forces that built their influence on Yemeni soil with full support from abroad, under the cover of the uproar that was raised around the many rounds of talks that the United Nations had previously sponsored from Geneva to Kuwait, over the past years, and which did not lead to anything.

In fact, the UN envoy no longer has a way to continue his role through the remaining powers of the United Nations, foremost of which is to bring the parties back together at a negotiating table committed to reaching a solution that does not violate the foundations on which the political process was founded; as the path that must lead Yemen to the stage of peace, and I mean specifically the Security Council resolutions, the Gulf Initiative Agreement and its executive mechanism, and most importantly all the outcomes of the national dialogue, around whose goals and purposes the decisions of international legitimacy revolved.

I have no doubt about the malicious reference that was designed to lead the international political process in Yemen, which was imposed through the US embassy and coincided with explicit regional wills to undermine the political gains for change in Yemen, although it represented a rare case of national consensus. It also aimed specifically to neutralize the will of the Yemeni people that imposed change, along with the national forces that are fighting today in the field to preserve the foundations of the Yemeni state.

It has become clear to the Yemenis that the major international powers, through the United Nations, were keen to impose the Houthi group as a tool laden with all the burdens of the past, to bury the bright and beautiful scene that emerged after the Yemenis achieved their comprehensive national dialogue, with outcomes that represented the highest ceiling for the ambition of a people who wish to leave the square of despair and hopelessness and reach a new stage of comprehensive achievements.

This malicious reference is what explains how and why the “funded” discussion of the Yemeni issue, in more than one regional and international capital, has become an exclusive right for a group of activists who are united by their state of disregard for religious and moral values and standards, and their shared hatred for the Yemeni Spring, which they see as an “actual achievement” for Islamists and no one else. This vision has been an entry point for demonizing change and belittling the national will of the Yemenis who gathered in the squares with all political colors, a large number of whom are not members of any movement or party, and in a way that no fair-minded person can claim that this crowd of change was merely a disciplined political “herd.”

Closed and open meetings on the Yemeni issue have turned into a promising field with financial returns, tempting Yemeni, regional and international organizations and research centers to engage in adopting and implementing meetings and deliberations on the Yemeni issue, through selective participation, exploiting the existence of generous credits in the office of the UN envoy, and financial items from governmental and non-governmental sources, ready for financing, and proceeding to impose absurd discussions on the geographical scope of the conflict represented by the Republic of Yemen.

The most important motive, in my opinion, is the desire to exploit the opportunity of these deliberations to collect data and information, and to gain a deeper understanding of the contradictions between the Yemeni components, and the subjective tendencies expressed by the Yemeni participants in these deliberations, in a way that allows for the construction of a vision of how appropriate plans can be designed to control and manage the conflict in Yemen at lower costs to regional and international security, and without any significant returns on the peace and unity of the Yemenis.

The statements of the current UN envoy and his predecessors have always focused on the role of Yemeni women in peacemaking, in an exaggeration that cannot be understood, given that women are far from making decisions related to managing the battle and war. Here, I do not object to the presence of women in any political discussion or debate, as there are women who engage in these deliberations in a personal capacity or as representatives of political parties and groups, and there are women who have proven during the past period their ability to play impressive roles, which are in fact an extension of their well-known activity in the Yemeni arena before the war, and I mention among them the prominent Yemeni activist Mona Luqman and other women involved in public affairs.

What is striking, in fact, is this exaggerated focus on women, which goes back to the approach of the previous, most failed envoy, Martin Griffiths, who fled from the supposed role of the UN envoy to occupy the international community with his pathetic meetings with Yemeni women, and with male activists who are characterized by clear political fluidity towards national issues and crucial entitlements, and the international envoys insist on exporting them to the scene and giving them this wide space to tamper and deepen the maze that separates Yemen from peace.

(Arabic 21)