US diplomat slams Houthis for Hodeida stalemate

cairo — The US ambassador to Yemen on Thursday urged Iranbacked Houthi militia to show “political maturity” and live up to their responsibilities under a UN-negotiated peace deal for the port city of Hodeida, Yemen’s key gateway for international aid.

The remarks by US Ambassador Matthew Tueller came a day after the spokesman for Yemen’s internationally recognised government called for stepped-up international pressure on the rebels, who have refused to surrender Hodeida.

Speaking in the southern city of Aden, which has been serving as the seat of Yemen’s government since the Houthis in 2014 seized the capital of Sanaa, Tueller asked the rebels to stop serving the interests of those who want to further “weaken” Yemen — a veiled reference to Iran.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of mainly Arab states joined the war on the side of the Yemeni government and has been fighting the Houthis since.

The last round of peace talks in Sweden late last year offered a glimpse of hope after the warring sides agreed to withdraw their forces from Hodeida. —

cairo — Yemen’s rebels are igniting more conflict by their refusal to give up control of the key port city of Hodeida, the focus of months of UN-brokered talks, a government spokesman said.

Renewed fighting in Hodeida would risk severing the main passage for humanitarian aid to the rest of the country, including northern Yemen, a heartland of the Houth rebels.

Rageh Badi, spokesman for the internationally recognised Yemen government, denounced remarks by rebel leader Mohammed Ali Al Houthi who earlier this week said that the Saudi-led coalition is trying to change the terms of the agreement struck last year in Sweden and that a rebel withdrawal would therefore be “impossible”.

Badi told reporters at a Press conference on Wednesday in Aden that such remarks could set off renewed fighting in Hodeida, the key entry point for international aid to the war-torn country, and violate the tentative peace agreement reached by the two sides in Sweden.

The remarks are a “renunciation of the Hodeida agreement and a declaration of war”, Badi said, urging the UN to step up pressure on the rebels to prevent another “explosion of the situation” in Hodeida. Otherwise, renewed fighting is just a “few days” away, he added.

The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by the Iranianbacked Houthis. The Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been fighting the Houthis since March 2015.

The last round of peace talks in Sweden offered a glimpse of hope after the sides agreed to withdraw their forces from Hodeida.

They remained, however, divided over who will run it once they pull out. —