UN chief, Saudi deputy crown prince talk children deaths in Yemen

PanARMENIAN.Net - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince on Wednesday, June 22 and the pair discussed improving civilian protection in Yemen after a UN report briefly blacklisted a Saudi-led coalition for killing children, Reuters reports.

Ban removed the coalition from the blacklist earlier this month pending review after Riyadh, a major UN donor, threatened to cut Palestinian aid and other UN funding. Saudi Arabia has denied using threats, although Ban blasted Riyadh for exerting "unacceptable" pressure.

When asked on his way into the meeting if he was still upset with Ban, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is in New York for business meetings after visiting Washington and the U.S. West Coast, said: "I'm not angry."

Prince Mohammed, who was 45 minutes late for the meeting, simply smiled when Ban told him that he stood by the UN report on children and armed conflict, a diplomatic source told Reuters.

The UN report said the coalition, which began an air campaign in March 2015 to defeat Iran-allied Houthi rebels, was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in the conflict last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, Reuters says.

An official UN statement said Ban and Prince Mohammed discussed "putting into place concrete measures that could improve the situation on the ground" to better protect children and civilians in Yemen.

"The Secretary-General expressed the hope that by the time he presents the Children and Armed Conflict report to the Security Council in August, he could point to progress on the protection of children and civilians in Yemen," it said.

Prince Mohammed, who is also the kingdom's defense minister, did not answer questions when he left. Saudi UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi described the meeting as excellent.

"The focus was on international issues, especially the issues of the region and there was broad agreement on virtually everything that was discussed," Mouallimi told reporters.