Warring parties back UN truce call

Sunni Muslim group echoes plea for peace

ADEN: Yemen’s warring parties welcomed a United Nations call for an immediate truce yesterday as the country entered its sixth year of a conflict that has unleashed a humanitarian crisis, rendering it more vulnerable to any coronavirus outbreak.

A Saudi-led military coalition said late on Wednesday that it backed the Yemeni government’s acceptance of the UN appeal to lay down arms or enter talks.

Their foe, the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, welcomed that stance but said it wants to see implementation on the ground.

The new coronavirus has yet to be documented in the impoverished Arabian peninsula nation where conflict violence has killed more than 100,000 and left millions on the brink of starvation. However, it is particularly vulnerable to an outbreak after years of war.

Following his call for a global ceasefire to focus on combating the coronavirus pandemic, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged Yemen’s parties to end hostilities and restart peace talks last held in December 2018.

The Sunni Muslim coalition, which intervened in Yemen in March 2015, supports efforts for a ceasefire, deescalation, confidence-building measures and work to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, spokesman Colonel Turki alMalki said in a statement.

“The coalition’s announcement ... is welcome,” a senior Houthi official, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, tweeted late on Wednesday.

“We are waiting for the announcement to be applied practically.”

Yemen had witnessed a lull in military action after Saudi Arabia and the Houthis launched back-channel talks late last year.

But there has been a recent spike in violence that threatens fragile peace deals in vital port cities.

“We have a global coronavirus pandemic threatening to overwhelm an already broken health care system,” said Tamuna Sabadze, country director at the International Rescue Committee, adding that Yemen is already battling a large cholera outbreak.

Millions are dependent on humanitarian aid in Yemen, which has been mired in conflict since the Houthis ousted the government from power in the capital, Sana’a, in late 2014.

The group still controls most major urban centres despite years of war.

The head of the Houthi political office said the movement was open to de-escalation efforts, including prisoner releases.

AFP Smoke billows from buildings after reported air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on arms warehouses at al-Dailami air base, controlled by Yemeni Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels and their allies north of the capital Sana’a.