YEMEN WILL CONTINUE TO VOTE YES ON UNGA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 002085

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT IO/UNP FOR ANDREW MORRISON AND
NEA/ARP FOR ANDREW MACDONALD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2019
TAGS: PREL UNGA KPAL IS YM
SUBJECT: YEMEN WILL CONTINUE TO VOTE YES ON UNGA
RESOLUTIONS WITH ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

REF: STATE 118799

Classified By: Ambassador Stephen Seche for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) PolChief delivered reftel demarche November 18 to
ROYG MFA Deputy Director of International Organizations
Indrees Al-Shammam. Al-Shammam, speaking frankly, stated
that Yemen will continue to vote yes, along with the rest of
the Arab countries, on all the resolutions with an
anti-Israel bias. He did not believe there would be a
reduction in such resolutions any time soon.


2. (C) To all Arabs, Al-Shammam explained, Palestine and
the plight of the Palestinian people are priority issues.
They have hope for change under President Obama, especially
since his Cairo speech, but were disappointed when the U.S.
and France recently denounced any unilateral Palestinian
declaration of independence.


3. (C) Al-Shammam, who seemed to understand the futility of
the numerous and redundant resolutions (he worked at the UN
for three years),said he would try to get permission for the
Yemeni delegation to meet and discuss the issues with the
U.S. delegation.

SECHE