News - Yemen: Acting Chairman of the Supreme Economic Committee, Governor of the Central Bank of Yemen, Hashem Ismail, confirmed that addressing the economic situation is the main point for any political solution.

This came during his meeting, Tuesday, with the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to discuss the economic situation and efforts to alleviate the suffering people of Yemen resulting from the aggression and blockade.

Hashem Ismail also stressed the need for the UN assessment of the economic situation in Yemen to be fair, to contribute to finding appropriate solutions that achieve the aspirations of the people of Yemen and alleviate its suffering.

He warned of the repercussions the recent escalation of US,Saudi aggression, indicating that this would directly affect any serious talks for a political solution.

He pointed out that the demands of the national leadership, do not include any political goals, but rather adopt, the rightful demands of the people of Yemen.

He expressed his disappointment with the approval of the International Monetary Fund last November to grant withdrawal units to the Pro-Saudi backed government, amounting to 300 million dollars.

He pointed out that the Fund's continuation in granting Pro-Saudi backed government of withdrawal units will affect its relations with the Central Bank in Sana'a, noting that these amounts are a right of the people.

Hashim Ismail also touched on the issue of Safer Reservoir, noting that since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding last March, which is 18 months long, there has been no progress on the ground.

He also reaffirmed readiness to work seriously with the UN envoy to address the economic situation in Yemen.

Earlier, the Economic Council of the Saudi-backed government announced that it approved a package of new economic measures that exacerbate the suffering of the people of Yemen in addition to the blockade and aggression. These economic measures directly affect the service and living conditions of the Yemenis, especially in the southern regions.

The first step of these measures is to raise the price of the customs dollar for imported goods in foreign currency, for the second time, by an increase of 50%. This time it raised it from 500 to 750 riyals for the US dollar or its equivalent in foreign currencies.

The second step was to raise the price of fuel in Marib governorate, as it raised the price of a liter of petroleum from 175 riyals to 487.5 riyals per liter, an increase of 178.5%.

The US-Saudi aggression also decided to raise the price of a domestic gas cylinder from 2,100 riyals to 3,000 riyals, a significant increase of 43% per cylinder.

In the third step, the Saudi-backed government intends to raise the tariff for electricity and water consumption, and gradually raise the tariff on subscribers' bills.

These measures came with the collapse of the new local currency against the dollar in the occupied governorates by 1,300 riyals per dollar, after only about a month and a half of seizing the special drawing rights of Yemen.

Citizens in Aden and the rest of the Yemeni areas under Saudi-Emirati occupation complain of a complete collapse of infrastructure services like electricity and water. A frightening deterioration of the economic situation and the exacerbation of famine in southern governorates is due to the rise in commodity prices resulting from the collapse of the Yemeni riyal price in those areas.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, backed by the United States and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power.

The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.

As part of its economic war, the US-Saudi aggression worked to drain about 97% of the Yemeni state's resources, either by controlling them militarily such as oil and gas sources, freezing Yemeni foreign assets and transferring them to mercenaries and financing coalition operations, or imposing siege on the vital port of Hodeidah and the most important port after Aden, which is still in the grip of Sana'a and out of control of the aggression.