US Envoy Lenderking Says Dialogue With Russia on Yemen ‘Very Helpful’

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking told Sputnik he finds the dialogue he maintains with Russia on the situation in the Arab Republic helpful.

"I keep a regular dialogue with the Russians on Yemen, which I find very helpful," Lenderking said on Thursday.

In addition, Lenderking said the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council have to be united on the agreed approaches to end the protracted conflict in Yemen.

When asked what needs to be done to push the peace process in Yemen, Lenderking said, "Several things have to happen. One is the international community has to stay very united around agreed approaches to end the Yemen conflict."

"First of all, there's only a political solution, there's no military solution, that the UN or the new UN envoy has to have unconditional access to all the parties," he said. "Relating to the first point that's the where the P5 as one of the crucial institutions staying united and focused on yemen can be very constructive toward achieving these goals."

Lenderking also noted that he just returned from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier in the week, where he participated in a P5 meeting.

"We also traveled to Muscat to meet with the Omanis," he added. "I know that the un envoy will go to the p5 capitals."

Lenderking spoke with Sputnik on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York.

The envoy shared that he has had a number of bilateral engagements in New York on Yemen.

"It's all designed to force, foster that kind of united approach toward Yemen," he said. "And by the way, that's the main issue that the Secretary stressed in the GCC ministerial that took place this afternoon is getting the GCC countries all working on the same page."

Yemen has been engulfed in an internal conflict between government forces and the Houthi movement since August 2014. The situation in the Middle Eastern nation is further complicated after Saudi Arabia joined the conflict on the Yemeni government's side in 2015 and began conducting occasional air, land and sea operations against the Islamist rebel movement.