Saudi ‘does not care’ about UN’s Yemen report source

Saudi’s envoy to the United Nations said on Thursday that the Arab-led coalition “does not care” to know the sources of information cited their report, which claimed children had been targeted in war-torn Yemen last year.

Abdullah al-Mouallimi insisted in an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel that instead, the coalition cares about accuracy of the information contained in the report.

The envoy added that he is confident that the dispute with the UN “is just a summer cloud that will quickly pass and it will end in reaching a solution that ends with a convincing solution for all.”

On Wednesday, the UN said it will not give the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen the sources of information that briefly led the coalition to be put on a blacklist, before it was withdrawn.

No threats

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday that it is “paramount” to protect sources of information used in any UN report, especially in a conflict area.

Last Thursday, UN Secretary -General Ban Ki-moon said he removed the US-backed coalition from the pending joint review of cases. He accused some unnamed countries of exerting unacceptable and “undue pressure.”

However, Mouallimi rubbished these comments, saying “we don’t use threats or intimidation,” and that Riyadh was “very committed to the United Nations.”

On Wednesday, Mouallimi sent a letter thanking the secretary-general for removing the coalition from the blacklist and said it “deeply regrets every human casualty in Yemen and reaffirms its commitment to taking every possible measure to protect all civilians.”

It notes that the monitoring of violations against children is to be done in cooperation “with national governments and relevant UN and civil society actors” and has to include an overview of the methodology and modality that were used to create the numbers in the report.”