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IPU Secretary General receives Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister at house of parliaments

Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Abdel Malik Al-Mikhlafi and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong

IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Abdel Malik Al-Mikhlafi. © IPU/Jorky

Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Abdel Malik Al-Mikhlafi, visited IPU HQ on 25 September.  He met with IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong with whom he discussed the current situation in Yemen. The SG briefed him on the Organization‘s efforts to mobilize more resources for humanitarian assistance to the Yemeni people.  The Organization was also working to promote dialogue within the Yemeni parliament to help it forge a unified response to the challenges facing Yemen.

“I urge the Yemeni Parliament to form a united front in defence of the Yemeni people. The Yemeni people need and deserve this”, said Mr. Chungong.

Mr. Al-Mikhlafi expressed his appreciation for the efforts of some parliaments to pressure their governments to increase humanitarian assistance to Yemen, a direct result of an emergency item on the famine in Yemen and parts of Africa adopted at the last IPU Assembly in April this year. The Deputy Prime Minister pledged his government's commitment to allowing humanitarian access to all Yemenis irrespective of their political allegiance.

The problem in Yemen, Mr. Al-Mikhlafi said, was one of legitimacy, which should soon be resolved once the parliament is convened in Aden in late October. He stressed that the first session would be open to all members of parliament who had been elected in 2003, regardless of their political affiliation. The question of the parliament’s status within the IPU would thus be resolved and the IPU would no longer have to deal with two factions but a single legitimate institution.