Arab Coalition keen to set up humanitarian corridor to deliver aid
▶ Col Al Malki says Iranian spy ships are transferring military experts to Yemen
The Arab Coalition in Yemen yesterday said it would open humanitarian corridors between the Houthi-occupied Red Sea port of Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa.
“The coalition is working with the UN’s humanitarian agency in Yemen to establish safe humanitarian corridors to help in the delivery of aid,” coalition spokesman Col Turki Al Malki said in Riyadh.
Col Al Malki accused the Iranian-backed Houthis of using civilians as human shields in Hodeidah, and confirmed that the coalition was continuing to fight terrorism in Yemen.
“The Iranian regime continues to break international law in efforts to destabilise the region’s security,” he said.
“There is an Iranian military ship monitoring the vessels passing through the Bab Al Mandeb.”
Iran has repeatedly denied it is arming the Houthis in Yemen, but the US and Saudi Arabia say it is providing military support.
“Our operations continue against suspicious ships that are threatening international shipping in the Red Sea,” Col Al Malki said.
He said the coalition suspected an Iranian ship, Safiz, had listening devices and was carrying military experts to Yemen.
The Arab Coalition has called for the complete withdrawal of the Houthis from Hodeidah, one of Yemen’s largest ports.
The port is a crucial lifeline for coalition and international aid to reach millions living under the Iran-backed group. Rebels have offered to hand the port operations to the UN but under their supervision.
This has been rejected by the coalition and Yemeni government officials, who say full withdrawal is a prerequisite for ceasefire and peace talks.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Anwar Gargash, said the liberation of the port city was key to solving the crisis in Yemen.
“Changing the situation on the ground is vital as the Houthis have undermined Geneva’s political process,” Dr Gargash said on Twitter. “The humanitarian dimension of the crisis is linked to the war’s political settlement.”
UN-led talks earlier this month in the Swiss city of Geneva were postponed when representatives of the rebels did not attend after raising last-minute conditions.
But the government negotiators attended the talks and met UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths.
The Houthis first claimed that they had not received authorisation to fly out of Sanaa, which they seized in 2014, before demanding that wounded rebel fighters be flown to Oman for treatment and a guarantee that the delegation would be allowed to return to Yemen.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Al Yamani dismissed the demands as excuses.
Mr Al Yamani said that the international community should have been more serious in their efforts to get the Houthis to Geneva. Yemen’s civil war has left 22 million people – about 75 per cent of the population – in need of assistance, the UN says.