Today the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Security Council Resolution 2451, a UK-led resolution to bolster the UN Yemen peace process.

The new resolution, the first to be passed on the conflict in Yemen since 2016, is designed to build on the momentum generated by UN peace talks in Stockholm last week.

The resolution calls for a ceasefire in Hodeidah governorate as agreed in Stockholm and support for the work of the UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths.

The resolution will also authorise the UN to take on the monitoring and other tasks it has committed to doing in Stockholm.

The UK first circulated a draft resolution on 19 November, following Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s visits to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran where he encouraged all parties to accelerate efforts to resolve the Yemen crisis.

Following representations made to the UK, the UK decided to delay tabling the resolution to allow it to reflect developments made during the peace talks.

Last week the Foreign Secretary travelled to Stockholm to attend the Yemen peace talks and met with leaders of the delegations of both parties, becoming the first UK Minister to meet with the Houthis.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

This Resolution is an important step along Yemen’s peace process. The unequivocal backing from the UN Security Council proves without a doubt that the international community fully endorses a political solution to the conflict.

We must now focus all our efforts on addressing the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Yemen and locking-in the historic agreements made by the parties in Stockholm. The world has an opportunity to prevent further devastation in Yemen, and the UK will continue to use all the diplomatic and humanitarian tools at our command to bring this terrible conflict to an end.

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Independent panel will look at how funding supports the needs of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt has issued a statement on the legal proceedings with respect to Ms. Meng Wanzhou, the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

The UK has confidence Canada is conducting a fair and transparent legal proceeding with respect to Ms. Meng Wanzhou, the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, respecting the international legal commitments in its extradition treaty with the United States.

The UK and Canada share a commitment to the rule of law, which is fundamental to all free societies. I am deeply concerned by suggestions of a political motivation for the detention of two Canadian citizens by the Chinese government. I call for them to be treated in a fair, unbiased and transparent manner.

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Published 21 December 2018

Thank you Mr President.

Thank you to Special Advisor Thiaw for briefing us today. We are pleased to hear of the progress made to operationalise and deliver the Integrated Strategy for the Sahel. You and your team deserve real credit for the 2018 Support Plan, which has rightly prioritised getting better coordination between agencies and improved buy-in from the governments and people of the Sahel region.

Mr President, as I think Mr Thiaw’s briefing has established, the Integrated Strategy has been through an important and formative year. The Support Plan has helped highlight the need to be realistic and targeted in our ambitions, and serves as a reminder that despite some very difficult challenges, the Sahel is also full of opportunities. The more that can be done to unlock the potential of the Sahel – particularly through support to education, jobs and family planning – the more we will see young entrepreneurs and young leaders finding local solutions to the challenges they face, including to the challenges of climate change.

We are therefore delighted to see the international community and the UN system redoubling its efforts through UNISS, seeking to learn from the challenges of the last five years, and taking a more deliberative partnership approach with the countries and peoples of the region. The Security Council has previously discussed the risk of UNISS seeming distant or disconnected from the realities of the region, so we welcome the increased focus on local engagement, particularly with girls and women.

Similarly, the past few years have shown the need to be realistic, patient, and ensure that major pledges and announcements are matched with sufficient people, resources, and capabilities to actually deliver in the region. This has not always been the case, and there is much that could be done centrally from New York to ensure existing resources are fully mobilised, and that coordination mechanisms in country are working as effectively as possible. In particular, we would highlight the need to deploy the best people to the toughest problems in the region itself.

Mr. President, we also need to ensure that the development agenda is working closely with other institutions and sectors, particularly those focused on defence and security. It is trite but true that there can be no development without stability, nor vice versa, so we would encourage more frequent and honest conversations between the development and security sectors in the Sahel. It is notable that West Africa and the Sahel region in particular are attracting ever more international solidarity and support – which is absolutely right and arguably overdue – but we need to ensure that organisational mandates are clear and strong lines of communication are set up between them.

Mr. President, the UK is in the process of expanding its diplomatic, defence, and development assistance to the Sahel region. We believe this will enable us to fully explore the links and opportunities, and build up an approach that knits together our security, diplomatic, development and humanitarian work.

We are opening new embassies in Niger and Chad, increasing our presence in Mali, and have already deployed 3 Chinook helicopters to provide logistical support to the G5 Joint Force through Operation Barkhane. In the coming years, we will also be significantly increasing our development assistance to the region. We see an approach that joins up the immediate and lifesaving aid to long term development and security outcomes as critical to changing the Sahel’s current trajectory. This demands UN leadership, and I am pleased to hear that UNISS will be entering 2019 in a better state to deliver this.