‘No further talks until Houthis honour Hodeidah agreements’

Yemen’s Houthi rebels show no intentions of implementing the UN-brokered ceasefire deal in Hodeidah, the Arab Coalition said yesterday.

The Yemen government said there would be no further negotiations with the rebels until they acted on the agreement reached at the talks in Sweden last month.

Col Turki Al Malki, a coalition spokesman, said the rebels were breaching the ceasefire in the port city of Hodeidah by continuously bombing mosques and targeting government forces. He said the Houthis had “violated the agreement 368 times”.

The talks in Sweden achieved a breakthrough when warring parties agreed on a ceasefire in Hodeidah, which went into effect on December 18, as well as the withdrawal of all forces from the area.

Col Al Malki said the coalition remained committed to finding a political solution to the war in Yemen, but a government official told The National that it would not take part in further talks until the rebels honoured their commitments.

“We have said before and continue to say that we will not attend the next round of talks unless the Houthis comply with what was agreed in Sweden,” the official said.

A rebel withdrawal from Hodeidah’s ports has been contentious, with accusations that the Houthis handed over control to their own forces rather than local forces as stipulated in the agreement. A prisoner exchange deal has yet to be implemented after disagreements over the lists of those detained.

With the agreements in danger of collapse, the UN special

envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, travelled to Sanaa on Saturday for talks with Houthi leaders in Yemen’s rebel-held capital.

Mr Griffiths left Yemen yesterday morning without making a public statement but senior rebel leader Mohammed Ali Al Houthi said on Sunday that talks on Yemen’s wartorn economy could be held in Jordan’s capital.

This claim was dismissed by the government official.

“The next round of talks will most likely be held in Kuwait and not in Jordan, and will focus on issues such as Hodeidah, reopening the rebelheld airport, and the country’s fragile economy,” the official said.

Jordan’s foreign ministry denied that Yemen’s warring parties had sought to hold talks in Amman.

After the talks in Sweden last month the UN said that another round of discussions was being planned for early this year to discuss a framework for political negotiations and a transitional governing body.

“Mr Griffiths spent the last two days discussing with Houthi leaders what was agreed in Stockholm, he is now on his way to Riyadh to follow up on the progress,” a UN source told The National.

Yemen’s President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and many of his officials are based in the Saudi capital. Mr Hadi has accused the rebels of sabotaging the ceasefire agreement.

He called on the international community to take a firm position in pressuring the Houthis to abide by what was agreed in Sweden.

The ceasefire accord is regarded as the most significant step towards ending the conflict that has raged in Yemen since 2015 and created a crisis where two thirds of the population is dependent on humanitarian aid.

Despite the truce, government forces and residents in Hodeidah reported an increase in Houthi attacks and the arrival of rebel reinforcements on Sunday.

The Stockholm agreement says both sides must withdraw from Hodeidah’s three ports, where most of Yemen’s food aid enters the country.