UN Special Envoy for Yemen urges comprehensive development of political process to encourage stability News
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UN Special Envoy for Yemen urges comprehensive development of political process to encourage stability

In a briefing delivered to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, welcomed recent initiatives and efforts to bolster stability and improve living conditions for Yemeni citizens amid the country’s long-running conflict, while simultaneously emphasizing the need for continued development and political progress to achieve sustainable outcomes for regional peace.

Highlighting current efforts to support stabilization in government areas as “significant,” Grundberg called upon Prime Minister Shaya Al-Zindani’s new cabinet to rely on recently strengthened governmental institutions and economic reforms to protect the country’s “recent gains,” while also warning against rising regional tensions, which threaten to undermine the country’s novel, but fragile, stability.  

In a briefing from Riyadh, Grundberg acknowledged early positive signs under Al-Zindani’s leadership, including improvements in electricity provision and the timely payment of public sector salaries. He also welcomed the appointment of three female ministers to the cabinet—the first such appointments in years—but emphasized that symbolic inclusion, without tangible action to back it up, is insufficient. Women must participate fully and meaningfully in governance and peace negotiations to produce more durable outcomes. He also stressed that these gains could quickly unravel if security deteriorates, economic reforms stall, or political interference undermines state institutions.  

“Stabilization in any part of the country will not be durable if the broader conflict in Yemen is not addressed comprehensively,” Grundberg said. “Without a wider negotiated political settlement to the conflict, gains will continue to remain vulnerable to reversal.”

Over a decade of war has reshaped Yemen’s political landscape, entrenching local power dynamics alongside national ones to create a complex network involving multiple actors. A reconstruction of the country’s political process ought to, according to Grundberg, reflect contemporary realities and address the country’s political, economic, and security issues collectively rather than separately, and do so in the context of related regional and international tensions.  

Moreover, Grundberg added that credible peace efforts must deliver both short-term relief, such as economic de-escalation measures that reduce suffering and demonstrate progress, whilst also offering Yemenis a forum to negotiate the more complex issues beyond those surface-level few that remain the underlying catalysts of the ongoing conflict, ultimately allowing them to contribute to shaping the country’s future security and mechanisms of accountability in governance.

Special Envoy Grundberg has repeatedly warned that the conflict has grown more fragmented and complex, with local rivalries layered onto national divisions and shaped by wider regional tensions. Stabilization efforts, while valiant and to a certain extent fruitful, cannot hold without an inclusive political process under UN auspices that addresses the conflict in its entirety, not just its most visible political or security flashpoints.

While Grundberg did not outline specific policy measures, his remarks point to reforms aimed at protecting the integrity and independence of key financial institutions, advancing economic de-escalation, and rebuilding confidence in state governance.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since 2014, when the armed Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah (Supporters of God), seized the country’s capital, Sana’a, which prompted the ruling government to flee and triggered a Saudi-led military intervention in 2015. Since then, the war has drawn in regional powers and fractured the country into rival political and military authorities, fueling one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as the conflict stretches into its second decade. Though fighting has somewhat decreased since April 2022, when the UN brokered a truce between the warring parties, a comprehensive political settlement has not yet been reached.

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