UK urges for Security Council action on Yemen

The United Kingdom will push for the United Nations Security Council to take action to end the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Yemen, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced on Monday.

"Now for the first time, there appears to be a window in which both sides can be encouraged to come to the table, stop the killing and find a political solution that is the only longterm way out of disaster," Hunt said.

He added that Britain will use "all its influence to push for such an approach" at the Security Council.

Hunt said he agreed with the UN's Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths that the time was right to bolster UN-led peace talks that collapsed in September. Griffiths is due to brief the Security Council on November 16.

The Foreign Office did not specify exactly what action Britain would take in the Security Council, but UN diplomats told the Reuters news agency that the UK is working with the United States on a draft resolution. The resolution would reportedly implement a ceasefire in Yemen.

World's worst humanitarian crisis

The nearly four-year-old war in Yemen has killed at least 10,000 people and sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

Some 1.8 million children in Yemen under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF, with some 14 million people on the brink of famine.

The conflict pits Iran-aligned Houthi rebels against Yemen's government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh has come under recent pressure from the US and Britain to end the conflict Yemen, as the kingdom continues to face global outcry over the murder of Saudi journalist Jama Khashoggi in Istanbul in early October.

rs/ng (AFP, Reuters)