COALITION ALLOWS MEDICAL EVACUATION FOR HOUTHIS

Concession for wounded rebel fighters designed to help clear the way for Yemen peace talks

The Arab Coalition gave assurances that 50 wounded Houthi fighters can be moved to Oman for medical treatment as part of a package of confidence-building measures to clear the way for peace talks in Sweden later this month, the UK government said yesterday.

The medical evacuation was announced after British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt travelled to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for talks this week to try to eliminate the problems that led to the failure of talks in Geneva in September.

The issue of medical evacuations was one of the key stumbling blocks for those talks, which were abandoned after a Houthi team failed to show up.

Saudi agreement for the removal of the wounded fighters is subject to conditions on who would travel with them, Mr Hunt said.

The British minister said the Houthi rebels needed to do their part by ending missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia. “Those two are the things that provoke some of these strikes,” he said.

Special envoy Martin Griffiths, who is in Riyadh talking to key players in the three-year conflict, is due to brief the UN Security Council on Friday about attempts to prepare the ground for talks in Sweden.

On Monday, he discussed with Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Al Yamani plans to secure the release of prisoners at Houthi-controlled prisons.

It was not clear if they discussed the release of Houthi prisoners.

Britain said it stands ready for a new resolution at the Security Council to support talks that deliver a ceasefire in a conflict that has raged since 2015.

Sources said the timetable, set out by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defence, to launch the Sweden talks by the end of November were “on track”.

Expectations of further confidence-building measures to sustain the recent progress will now shift to the report that

Mr Griffiths makes to diplomats in New York this week.

Mr Hunt said the medical evacuations were very significant for the success of the meeting in Sweden.

“That makes the prospect of those peace talks happening more real and that will be very important,” he said.

“So, it’s about confidence building on both sides but certainly from the people I’ve spoken to today, there is a real willingness to engage in this.”

Mr Hunt’s comments came as the Saudi-led Arab Coalition resumed air strikes against the port city of Hodeidah after a lull during talks on Monday. The port is the entry point for between 70 and 80 per cent of the food, medicine and humanitarian aid for a country suffering the world’s greatest crisis.

Mr Hunt said that diplomacy and negotiation remained the only path to end the fighting, with three quarters of the population needing humanitarian help and 8.4 million at risk of starvation.

He also spoke to the Foreign Minister of Oman and senior leadership of Yemen.

“Overall, I leave the region encouraged by these signs of progress and I am determined to do what it takes to convert this into a lasting peace for the people of Yemen,” Mr Hunt said after Monday’s meeting with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and US National Security Adviser John Bolton.

The Yemeni conflict began in 2014 when Houthi rebels invaded the capital Sanaa, toppling the internationally recognised government of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi. An Arab coalition intervened in March 2015 at Mr Hadi’s request.

On Monday, Yemen’s former prime minister said a peace deal was still possible, but emphasised that the rebels are running out of opportunities for a resolution.

“If they delay the peace process, then they will lose everything and the international community will deal with them as a terrorist organisation, just like ISIS,” Khaled Bahah told

Mr Hunt said that diplomacy and negotiation remained the only path to put an end to the fighting