The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Muammar Al -Iryani, criticized today statements made by the UN envoy to Yemen Hans Grendberg to a Yemeni site, questioning his ability to achieve peace in light of his inability to protect the United Nations employees kidnapped by the Houthi militia.

Al -Iryani said in a press statement, “The UN envoy if he is serious about his talk about achieving peace in Yemen, and he wants to persuade us and the international community to actively his role, then he must start with the basic moral and legal step, which is to release the United Nations employees and international organizations, his office employees, and diplomats kidnapped in Houthi militia detention centers for years.”

He added: "How can a UN envoy talk about building confidence and a political path, while he is unable to protect the United Nations crews themselves, and turns a blind eye to the Houthis' use of humanitarian files as a political extortion card?"

Al -Iryani considered that "the true test of the neutrality of the UN envoy is not in the data, but in the verbs," stressing that "if he is unable to liberate his colleagues, then how can he liberate an entire home from the coup and Houthi terrorism?"

The Houthi militia continues to detention a number of United Nations employees and international organizations in Sanaa for more than two years, in a challenge to international calls calling for an immediate release of them.