No prospects for swift settlement of Yemeni crisis - Russian ambassador

MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Prospects for a swift settlement of the Yemeni crisis are rather vague as of yet, Russian Ambassador in that country Vladimir Dedushkin told TASS on Monday. "The Yemeni crisis is rooted not only in domestic problems but in external factors as well," he said. Thus, in his words, a number of countries are seeking to use this crisis as a pretext to impose international sanctions against the leaders of some of Yemeni forces or to impose economic settlement schemes designed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "This is what triggered the Houthi rebellion and entailed further escalation of the situation," the Russian diplomat said. "It is easy to unleash a war but it is much more difficult to stop it," Dedushkin said. "It is a fact now that the bloody fratricidal conflict in Yemen has been going on for more than a year. The question is what was the reason to start it? From the very beginning Russia has been against any force solution. That was why we did not vote in support of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216 on Yemen. We have always been standing firm and have been calling for the use of political and diplomatic tools to settle this crisis." Read more