UN rejects plan to call for Yemen ceasefire

THE UN Security Council has rejected a plan to call for an end to fighting in Hodeidah, Yemen, as Saudi-led forces look poised to take the city’s airport.

The UK and the US, which support the Arab coalition against the Iranbacked Houthi rebels, voiced opposition to the motion brought by Sweden, one of the council’s 15 members.

The council instead “urged all sides to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law” and called for the port, a vital aid route for 70 per cent of Yemen’s food, to be kept open.

Forces of the Western-backed coalition have advanced to within feet of the international airport, though no fighting has yet taken place in Hodeidah. Karen Pierce, the UK ambassador to the UN, said: “We make our own decisions in the security council and we make them on the basis of the British national interest including wider issues of security. The most important aspect is to secure a political settlement.”

The UN’S refusal to call for a ceasefire left open the possibility of a direct attack on Hodeidah, although officials are still hoping for a last-minute deal between warring parties.

Aid agencies have warned that an attack will only worsen the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

David Miliband, the chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, that an attack would lead to “a great danger of besiegement and longterm urban warfare”.