United Nations // UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday for talks that touched on the row between the UN and Riyadh over the deaths of hundreds of children in Yemen.
The meeting, hosted by Mr Ban at UN headquarters in New York was low-key, and neither he nor the Saudi prince revealed any details of their discussion.
Prince Salman is the son of Saudi king and the kingdom’s defence minister. He also has been the driving force behind economic reform and a more proactive Saudi foreign policy.
The UN said the two men had discussed “putting into place concrete measures that could improve the situation on the ground” in Yemen, notably with respect to protecting children and civilians affected by the conflict.
Relations have been shaky after the UN briefly blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen following reports which said it was responsible for 60 per cent of the 785 children killed in the country last year. The blacklisting infuriated Riyadh, and the UN removed the coalition from the list pending a fact review.
Mr Ban will formally present the report on children and armed conflict to the UN Security Council in August.
During Wednesday’s meeting with the Prince Salman, he “expressed the hope that ... he could point to progress on the protection of children and civilians in Yemen” by that time.
Mr Ban’s office said he “remains open to receiving any new elements from Saudi Arabia and hoped that discussions would take place soon”.
The Arab coalition is supporting the Yemeni government in its fight against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, primarily through air strikes that began in March 2015.
The Saudi government has requested that the UN send a team of experts to the coalition headquarters in Riyadh to jointly review the report and for the UN to provide details on its sources and methods. The world body has not yet responded.
Mr Ban and Prince Salman also discussed the situation in Syria, Libya, Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the UN said.
The secretary-general is due in the Middle East next week to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and also to discuss Yemen during a stop in Kuwait.
* Agence France-Presse