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UN Yemen envoy resigns amid crisis

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Jamal Benomar, the UN special adviser on Yemen, has resigned, diplomatic sources have told Al Jazeera.

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor, said the Moroccan diplomat told Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief, that it was time for him to end his role.

“Jamal Benomar has told the secretary-general it is time for him to end his mission in Yemen but that he remains willing to help the UN in any capacity that is needed,” he reported, citing diplomatic sources.

A UN spokesperson confirmed in a statement that Benomar wanted to move to another assignment, adding that a successor “will be named in due course”.

“Mr Benomar has spent the past four years working closely with the Yemenis to realise their legitimate aspirations for democratic change fulfilled,” the spokesperson’s statement said.

“The secretary-general greatly appreciates the tireless efforts Mr Benomar has made over the years to promote consensus and trust on a peaceful way forward in Yemen.”

The AFP news agency reported that among the candidates who could take his place is Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a Mauritanian diplomat who currently heads the UN Ebola mission in Ghana’s capital Accra.

Benomar’s resignation comes as the war in Yemen intensifies, with the Saudi-led coalition continuing its air campaign against Houthi rebels in the country.

Before Benomar’s resignation, Iran said on Wednesday that it will use all its influence to broker a peace deal for Yemen in order to end Saudi-led air strikes.

“We are a major force in the region and we have relations with all groups in various countries, and we are going to use that in order to bring everybody to the negotiating table, to the point that we can,” Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said.

Zarif, who was visiting Portugal, said efforts to bring peace to Yemen must “start with the right premise, that we need to end this bombardment and all the bloodshed, and prevent al-Qaeda from taking advantage of this nasty situation”.

“We have influence with a lot of groups in Yemen, not just the Houthis and the Shias,” he said.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing an arms embargo on the rebels and calling on them to withdraw from the areas they control.

The resolution, put forward by Jordan and Gulf Arab countries, also requires the Houthis to withdraw from places they control, including the capital Sanaa.

Houthi fighters – widely believed to be backed by Iran – swept into the capital in September and have since tried to expand their control across Yemen, which is also battling al-Qaeda’s local branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The Houthis put President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi under house arrest in February, demanding he carry out political reforms.

Hadi has since fled to Saudi Arabia, which says it launched the air strikes against the Houthis to help defend Hadi’s “legitimate authority” and has rejected Iran’s calls to halt the bombardment.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said this week that estimates show more than 121,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since a Saudi-led coalition air strike campaign began on March 26.

Benomar’s resignation also came after former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh sent messages to Arab Gulf states, asking for a safe exit for himself and his family, sources told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera


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