UAE ready for UN-led Yemen political solution
AL HOUTHI MILITIA MUST PULL OUT OF HODEIDA CITY AND PORT, GARGASH INSISTS
For the UN-led political process in Yemen to succeed the liberation of Hodeida is essential, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has said.
“We are determined to end this war. Our priority is the peaceful withdrawal of [Al] Houthi militias from the city and port,” Gargash tweeted, a day before the UN envoy’s talks in Yemen.
“Securing Hodeida is an essential step towards a political conclusion. Otherwise the mentality of zero sum solutions and utility of profiteering from a war economy will continue to prevail. The Coalition is acting responsibly and rationally in trying to secure Hodeida peacefully and by avoiding a confrontation,” he tweeted.
The UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, is due in the southern city of Aden today for talks with President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, whose forces have battled for weeks to regain control of Hodeida.
“Yet, achieving our objectives is essential to ending the war in Yemen. We continue to support the UN led efforts in Hodeida and Yemen. A UN and Yemeni led political process will accelerate with a [Al] Houthi decision to withdraw from Hodeida and avoid a confrontation,” Gargash added.
Echoing the sentiments Reem Ebrahim Al Hashemi, the UAE minister of state for international cooperation, said, “We are hopeful and we believe in the political process.”
But “we cannot imagine a set-up where the Al Houthis can be in the city” of Hodeida, Al Hashemi added.
The port has been held by the Iran-backed Al Houthis since 2014.
On June 13, an Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and the Yemeni government launched a major offensive to retake Hodeida port, through which nearly three quarters of Yemen’s imports flow.
The coalition says the port has been used by the militia as an entry point for weapons smuggled from Iran.
Griffiths, who held a first round of meetings on the Hodeida crisis in militia-held Sana’a earlier this month, is holding talks with both sides to “return rapidly to the negotiating table”, his office said.