Kuwait played crucial role for Yemen -- Sheikh Ahmed

KUWAIT, Feb 18 (KUNA) -- Kuwait played a pivotal role in enabling Yemeni parties reach "strategic framework" for a settlement in the war-torn nation, said the visiting UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed on Sunday.
Sheikh Ahmed, whose mission in Kuwait marked end of his tenure, made the assertion after he was received by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at Seif Palace in an audience attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.
The resigning envoy said, "I was deeply honored with the meeting with His Highness the Amir. In fact, this is a grand occasion because I have come in the end of my mandate to express to him in person my appreciation and sentiments of endearment.
"As you know the references we had been talking about for a solution in Yemen dated back to the period we had spent in Kuwait." He was alluding to summer of 2016 when Kuwait hosted marathon negotiations among the Yemeni parties -- under the UN aegis. Although there was concord on some issues, the warring factions failed to reach a fundamental and viable settlement to the crisis.
"Kuwait had played a very significant role in proposing ideas and working out a strategic framework (for a settlement) .. We had actually approached a solution however as you might have known, some Yemeni parties stood in our way while seeking a final solution.
"Nevertheless, this visit is a personal credit for His Highness the Amir for his role." Various quarters, namely the UN, have affirmed His Highness' good-will role and has designated him as Humanitarian Leader.
His Highness the Amir has played mediation role for settling various conflicts across the world in general and the region in particular.
Sheikh Ahmed revealed that he would address the Security Council for the last time on February 27. "I came to meet His Highness and listen to his advices. Again I re-affirm my deep admiration toward His Highness the Amir in person, as well as the State of Kuwait." (Pick up previous) rk