Minister of Transport meets UN Co-ordinator for Humanitarian Affairs
Minister of Transport, Abdul-Wahab Al-Durra, met with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, David Gresley.
During the meeting, it was agreed to arrange the necessary trips for United Nations staff and the trips programmed to implement the agreement to release prisoners recently signed in Geneva.
Minister Al-Durra urged the United Nations organizations to work with complete impartiality in the areas of humanitarian work, without bias to any party, in order to ensure the relief of the suffering of the Yemeni people.
He said, “The exchange of roles between the coalition and its local tools for the continuation of the siege on Sana’a International Airport is unacceptable, and we will not stand idly by regarding the suffering of the Yemeni citizen when he wants to travel for treatment abroad or when he is waiting for reservations to return to his homeland.”
Minister of Transport pointed to the recent measures taken by the Yemenia company in Aden to prevent citizens from obtaining travel tickets from Yemenia offices and agencies within the Republic of Yemen and to stop travel to new destinations such as Cairo and India.
And he stated, “The unfair measures by Yemenia were met with resentment and popular pressure on the Ministry of Transport, the Salvation Government, and the United Nations, to open all required destinations and open Sana’a airport without restriction or condition.”
Minister of Transport reaffirmed that the balances of Yemen Airways are not frozen. He said: “Officials in the public administration in Sana’a and in the Aden governorate are disbursing employee dues and operating expenses from them.”
The Minister of Transport stressed the need to open all Yemeni airports to travelers, including Sana’a International Airport and Al-Rayyan Airport, which the occupiers turned into a military barracks.
For his part, the Chargé d’affaires of Yemen Airways, Khalil Jahaf, confirmed that the company’s assets were not frozen by Sana’a, considering the decision to prevent the sale of travel tickets from Sana’a is unsound and contradicts commercial and humanitarian foundations.
While the Undersecretary of the Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority, Raed Jabal, criticized the United Nations and international organizations for not exerting pressure on the Saudi aggression coalition to open Sanaa airport and add new destinations that meet the needs of the Yemeni people, especially the sick.
For his part, Grassley affirmed that the United Nations is working to contribute to alleviating the suffering of the Yemeni people, pointing out that the United Nations will, in turn, coordinate with the concerned authorities to address the difficulties that prevent the full opening of Sana’a International Airport.
The meeting was attended by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport for the Air Transport Sector, Abdullah Al-Ansi, a representative of the World Food Program and the Director of the UN Coordinator’s Office.
