Top priority avoiding human catastrophe

RIYADH: Yemen's newly appointed Vice President Khalid Bahah said on Thursday his new government's absolute priority would be handling the humanitarian situation in his country.
"We will work fast to provide humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people by all means that guarantees the aid reaches the needy people without discrimination in all parts of the country in order to stop the situation from turning into a humanitarian catastrophe," he told reporters at the Yemeni Embassy.
Bahah said the humanitarian mission would not succeed without the cooperation of all parties in Yemen and getting into serious dialogue based on equality between all parties away from the threat of weapons. He said his government welcomes all initiatives aimed at resolving the conflict.
"But there would be no dialogue with the Houthis until they stop the killings, particularly in the southern port city of Aden," he said.
"Also they should implement all international resolutions on the Yemeni conflict and halt the deliberate killing of civilians," he added.
Bahah urged supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the military to switch their loyalty to support the legitimate government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and get rid of the narrow factional loyalty that is causing the destruction of the country.
He thanked Russia for not blocking the UN Security Council resolution that imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis. He said: "We are still hoping that there is no ground campaign announced with the air campaign."
Meanwhile, the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, has resigned, according to a UN statement, signaling that his effort to end fighting had failed. Benomar, a veteran Moroccan diplomat, brokered a 2011 transition plan aimed at quelling political turmoil in Yemen.
In another significant development, Al-Qaeda seized control of a major airport, a sea port and an oil terminal in southern Yemen on Thursday, consolidating its hold on the country's largest province amid wider chaos pitting Shiite rebels against forces loyal to the exiled president and a Saudi-led air campaign.