SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much.
Good afternoon to everybody and a special
thank you to my good friend Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign minister
of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
I'm delighted with his partnership
and I'm very grateful to him for hosting a series of discussions
here in Jeddah.
And as he has just finished relating to all of you,
we had a very, very constructive series of discussions.
I also want to thank UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed - very grateful to him for his work
over these last months, but also for his joining us here today
and helping to shape the discussions that we had.
I landed less than 24 hours ago, and I have to tell you,
it has been busy.
It has, however, most importantly,
been very productive.
Last night, I joined the foreign minister for a working dinner
with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Nayef and His Royal Highness Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman.
And this morning I met with His Majesty King Salman.
And during these meetings, we had an opportunity
to discuss a broad array of the issues that
face the region and the issues which
are so central to the partnership between the United
States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
We underscored again and again, frankly, because again
and again we found ourselves in agreement on certain approaches
- we underscored the close partnership
that we are currently engaged in on any number of fronts.
This afternoon Adel and I met with our counterparts
from the Gulf Cooperation Council
- UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Kingdom
joined us, as well as UN Special Envoy Ismail Ahmed.
The purpose of our meetings was, quite simply,
to see if together we could find a way to end the violence
of Yemen, to end the war, and to address the deeply troubling
situation there, which has now not only killed more than 6,500
people to date, but become a humanitarian crisis of enormous
magnitude and a growing security threat,
and one that everybody agreed - there was no debate about this
- if we cannot find a solution to the war that meets
the appropriate needs of respecting the sovereignty
and the security of Saudi Arabia,
while at the same time providing the Houthi, a minority,
an opportunity to be part of a government in the future,
then things can only go in one direction,
and that is worse, in Yemen.
The restoration of stability to Yemen
is vital in order to ease the suffering
and to prevent groups like al-Qaida and Daesh
from taking further advantage of the political and security
vacuum and the instability that has been created.
It is essential for Yemen, for countries in the region,
and for the world community in general
to agree on a plan to end the fighting
and achieve a lasting peace.
The bloodshed, I think most would agree,
has simply gone on for too long.
It has to stop.
And everyone that we met with today, all of the ministers
who came here, were in full agreement:
there is no military solution.
As I made clear in our meetings today
- and I want to emphasize this - the United States
is committed to the security of Saudi Arabia.
We were deeply troubled by the attacks on Saudi territory.
We were deeply troubled by the photographs which
were shown to me early on by His Royal Highness Mohammed bin
Nayef showing missiles that had come from Iran that were being
positioned on the Saudi border.
And we are deeply concerned about missile attacks that have
taken place on border towns.
IT IS BASIC INTERNATIONAL LAW: Every country has
a right to a safe and sovereign border,
and any violation of that is unacceptable
and a violation of international law;
and a country has a right to defend itself.
The threat additionally posed by the shipment of missiles
and other sophisticated weapons into Yemen from Iran
extends well beyond Yemen.
It is not a threat just to Saudi Arabia;
it is a threat to the region, it is a threat to the United
States, and it cannot continue.
As we have stated previously, we're
also extremely concerned by reports of civilian casualties
and the destruction of vital infrastructure
no matter who causes it.
Strikes that damage or destroy homes, businesses,
and hospitals not only exacerbate the suffering
of the Yemeni people, but they also
undermine attempts to try to resolve peacefully
the challenges that the country faces.
I did raise this in a number of our meetings,
but let me share with you, I know
it is a concern fully shared by Foreign Minister al-Jubeir
and by the Government of Saudi Arabia.
And he has committed and the government
have committed to investigating troubling reports that we've
all seen in order to prevent similar tragedies
in the future.
Now, we all know that the humanitarian situation in Yemen
has deteriorated rapidly.
And frankly, that just underscores the reasons
that we came here today, and it underscores the work
that we have to do.
The numbers don't begin to capture
the true depth of the tragedy, but they are nevertheless
staggering.
More than 2 million Yemenis are now displaced from their homes.
Food shortages have driven prices
up 60 percent since last March, and they
have brought the country to the brink of famine.
More than 14 million people are facing severe hunger
and malnutrition, including one in three children
under the age of five.
Overall, 80 percent of Yemenis are in need
of humanitarian assistance.
I have to say that, to date, the international response
to this crisis has fallen short of filling
the gap between the supplies that are available
and those that are required.
The United States has been the largest donor - by far
- and today I can announce we will
contribute another $189 million dollars in urgently needed aid.
We strongly urge other countries in and outside the region
to expand their contributions as well.
And every party has an obligation
to allow the unfettered flow of humanitarian assistance
to Yemenis in all parts of the country.
That is necessary to save lives, and it is also
mandated under international law,
and it is the right thing to do.
But the surest way to relieve the hardships and the hunger
is to stop the fighting, end the war.
And we need to return, as quickly as possible,
to a ceasefire that can lead to a permanent end
to the conflict.
I want to thank the Saudis, who actually contributed very
significantly to the efforts in Kuwait,
and I thank the Kuwaitis, who pushed
very hard for a peaceful political solution
to this crisis.
And most of us thought that an agreement had
been reached with the Houthi.
But unfortunately, at the last minute
the Houthi decided otherwise, and so we find ourselves
where we are today.
We all agreed today - and Saudi Arabia
is front and center in wanting to find
a real solution, a political solution to this conflict.
The United States believes that the UN-led process affords
the very best chance for an agreement that
will end the violence and address the political disputes
that caused this violence.
And the United States strongly supports, together
with the GCC, that overwhelmingly today
backed efforts to support UN Special Envoy
Ahmed to get the negotiations back on track
and to move forward as rapidly as possible.
This morning, four of us - the United Kingdom,
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
and the United States - met to discuss ways
to break the impasse in Yemen.
And I thank all of the participants
in that for their extremely constructive dialogue.
Together with UN Special Envoy Ismail,
we agreed on a renewed approach to negotiations,
with both a security and political track simultaneously,
working in order to provide a comprehensive settlement.
The political and security track would
be unified into one sequential implementation process.
This afternoon, the entire GCC weighed in
and agreed unanimously with this new initiative,
a comprehensive approach that gives both sides confidence
that the other is following through.
It prioritizes the rights and sovereignty
of the people of Yemen.
And the details will be finalized by the parties
themselves in negotiations.
That is as it ought to be.
The final agreement, however, in broad outline
would include, in the first phase, the swift formation
of a new national unity government,
with power shared among the parties;
the withdrawal of forces from Sana'a and other key areas;
the transfer of all heavy weapons,
including ballistic missiles and launchers,
from the Houthis and forces allied
with them, to a third party.
The agreement would require the new unity government
to respect the security, the integrity, and the sanctity
of international borders, and it would prohibit the deployment
of weapons from Yemeni territory that
threatened international waterways or the security
of Yemen's neighbors.
We believe that this is a fair and sensible approach,
and we are grateful to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, and the others who joined here today
in fashioning what can only be deemed
to be a reasonable approach.
And we encourage the Houthi and their allies
and any other country involved in this
to be supportive of that.
Ultimately, it is the parties that
will have to finalize the text.
And it is the parties that will have
to finalize the steps necessary for the Yemeni people
to adopt a new constitution, hold free and fair elections,
and resume their daily lives under new, democratically
elected government.
In addition, my counterparts and I
also committed to providing future support -
economic support, stabilization support -
to help meet the urgent humanitarian needs,
to stabilize the economy, and to assist in the development
and reconstruction.
From here, from today, Special Envoy Ahmed
will immediately begin a series of consultations
with the parties to work out the final details of this approach.
And if the parties engage in those details,
and if they engage in a legitimate process,
that will provide the opportunity
for the resumption of the full measure of the ceasefire
agreement that was reached on April 10th of the year.
Now, today in Jeddah, I think we have re-emphasized,
and we are re-emphasizing here now publicly,
that this war needs to end, and it needs
to end as quickly as possible.
But it also needs to end in a way that
protects the rights and the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia
and of the region and does not require a compromise
on any country's security.
For many reasons, we have to do this,
but also because we need to focus
on the fight against al-Qaida and also against Daesh.
The agreement that we have endorsed today addresses all
the parties' concerns.
Now, it's never easy; we understand that.
But the United States will remain heavily engaged
diplomatically, along with our international partners,
in order to help ensure that the needs of the region's security
are met and to ensure that the Yemeni people get
the humanitarian assistance and ultimately
the peace and the security that they need and deserve.
So I again thank Foreign Minister al-Jubeir, Special
Envoy Ahmed, and my counterparts from the United Kingdom
and the GCC nations for their partnership
and for their commitment to ending this conflict as
soon as possible, and I particularly
thank my friend Adel for his partnership
and his open-minded efforts to try to find a way forward
in this endeavor.
Thank you.