UN works for Yemen talks as battles flare
SANAA: UN envoy Martin Griffiths was preparing on Tuesday to head to war-torn Yemen to lay the groundwork for peace talks in Sweden, after fresh fighting shook the flashpoint city of Hodeida.
Griffiths — whose efforts at kickstarting peace talks collapsed in September — is again trying to get the Ansar Allah fighters and the Saudibacked government to the negotiating table by the end of the year.
He is expected to meet with Ansar Allah officials in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday. Both sides have in the past week expressed their support for the envoy and his mission to hold talks in Stockholm, but fierce clashes erupted in the Red Sea city of Hodeida late on Monday after a lull.
Military officials said the battles were the worst since loyalists halted an offensive last week, and were concentrated in the eastern part of the city where Ansar Allah fighters fired artillery.
Pro-government forces struck back, supported by warplanes from the coalition which launched a dozen raids, the sources said.
According to Ansar Allah-run media, clashes lasted up to four hours and resulted in fatalities.
The city was relatively calm on Tuesday morning, according to an AFP correspondent.
On Monday, Britain presented to the UN Security Council a draft resolution urging an immediate truce in Hodeida, whose port serves as an entry point to nearly all imports and humanitarian aid to the impoverished country.
The draft, circulated by Britain to the 14 other council members and seen by AFP, sets a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid.
The proposed resolution would significantly ratchet up pressure on the coalition and the Ansar Allah to seek a negotiated settlement in Yemen, where millions are on the brink of starvation.
It also calls for a large injection of foreign currency to support Yemen’s collapsing currency and for salaries of civil servants, teachers, and health workers to be paid within a month.
Mohammed Ali al Huthi, head of the Ansar Allah’s Higher Revolutionary Committee and an influential political figure, tweeted on Monday that he wanted his group to announce “readiness to suspend and halt all military operations” and stop firing missiles on Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh also lent its support to new talks.
Saudi King Salman told the Shura Council, his country’s top advisory body, that the kingdom backed a “political solution” and a “comprehensive national dialogue” in Yemen.
Mohammed Ali al Huthi wants his group to announce “readiness to suspend and halt all military operations” and stop firing missiles on Saudi Arabia. Riyadh also lent its support to new talks