NEW YORK: Outgoing UN Yemen mediator Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Tuesday that after three years of trying to broker an end to the conflict in the Arabian Peninsula country, "the parties have yet to overcome their differences."
"I hope very, very much indeed ... that the efforts undertaken by the Sultanate of Oman, as well as others, but the Sultanate of Oman in particular, following my visits to Sanaa and Riyadh, will bear fruit," Griffiths told the 15-member council during his last briefing.
Griffiths is set to become the UN aid chief next month.
An Omani delegation visited Yemen's capital Sanaa last week and met with the leader of the Houthi group, Abdulmalik Al-Houthi.
Oman recently stepped up efforts to back UN shuttle diplomacy.
"Yemeni men, women and children are suffering every day because people with power have missed the opportunities presented to them to make the necessary concessions to end the war," Griffiths told the council.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is yet to appoint Griffiths' successor, but some diplomats said front-runners were the European Union ambassador to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, and former British diplomat and former UN Somalia envoy Nicholas Kay.
Gutterres' choice of a replacement for Griffiths has to be approved by the 15-member UN Security Council.
UN Yemen envoy hopes Oman peace efforts ‘bear fruit’
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UN Yemen envoy hopes Oman peace efforts ‘bear fruit’
- "Yemeni men, women and children are suffering every day," Griffiths said
- He is set to become the UN aid chief next month
Palestinians from West Bank arrive at Israeli checkpoints for first Friday prayers of Ramadan
Palestinian worshippers coming from West Bank cities arrived at Israeli checkpoints on Friday hoping to cross to attend first Friday prayers of Ramadan at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Some said they were not allowed to enter and were asked to go back.
Israeli authorities said they would only allow up to 10,000 Palestinian worshippers from the West Bank to attend prayers at al-Aqsa, as security forces stepped up deployments across the city.
Police said preparations for Ramadan had been completed, with large numbers of officers and border police to be deployed in the Old City, around holy sites and along routes used by worshippers.
Israel's COGAT, a military agency that controls access to the West Bank and Gaza, said that entry to Jerusalem from the West Bank would be capped at 10,000 worshippers. Men aged 55 and over and women aged 50 and over will be eligible to enter, along with children up to age 12 accompanied by a first-degree relative, COGAT said.
Al-Aqsa lies at the heart of Jerusalem's old city. It is Islam's third holiest site and known to Jews as Temple Mount.
