UN CHIEF URGES EGYPT LISTEN TO ITS PEOPLE
News York, 25 Jumadil Akhir 1436/14 April 2015 (MINA) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called on the Egyptian authorities to stop using violence against their people and to listen to their aspirations instead.
Ban, speaking in Doha on the sidelines of a UN crime conference, said: “I hope they [the Egyptian authorities] will strive to achieve the Egyptian people’s aspirations and hopes.”
“I hope the Egyptian government would strive to apply real mature democracy and to respect human rights and dignity,” he added, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa.
Remarking on the situation in Yemen, the UN chief warned: “Yemen lives a very large humanitarian crisis and because of the security conditions it is difficult to reach those in need of humanitarian assistance.”
He said the UN has been cooperating with the International Red Cross in order to deliver humanitarian assistance and urged warring rivals in Yemen to resume dialogue immediately.
“The United Nations has been facilitating this [dialogue] process through my Special Envoy Jamal Benomar and we were very close to establishing a national unity government,” he explained.
The UN chief blamed Shia Houthi militant group and “some divisive manipulation by the former president” Ali Abdullah Saleh for the deterioration of the situation in Yemen in recent months.
“Unfortunately this sudden military takeover by Houthis has led inevitably to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries taking military actions,” he said.
“While I have taken note that such military action, which was initiated at the request of the sovereign and legitimate president of Yemen. having seen continuing tragic consequences where more than 600 people were killed and more than 2,000 people wounded, [I believe] it is important and necessary that the dialogue should prevail,” he added. (T/P002/R03)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
