Yemen rivals lash out ahead of peace talks
RIMBO, Sweden: Yemen’s government and rebels doubled down on their rival demands Thursday, just moments before hard-won peace talks were due to open in Sweden under the auspices of the United Nations.
Talks between the Saudibacked government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen’s Huthi rebels, linked to Riyadh’s archrival Iran, have been months in the making, with the UN sending its special envoy to Sanaa to personally escort the delegation to Sweden.
They are slated to last for one week, according to a source in the UN.
The negotiations mark the first attempt in two years to broker an end to the Yemen conflict, which has killed at least 10,000 people since 2015 and triggered what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Warring parties struck a far from conciliatory tone in the moments before the talks were due to open in Rimbo, Sweden – a picturesque village some 60 kilometres north of Stockholm.
A top Huthi rebel official threatened Thursday to bar UN planes from using the Yemeni capital’s airport unless the peace negotiations lead to its full reopening.
“If the Yemeni capital’s airport is not opened to the Yemeni people in the peace talks in Sweden, I call on the ( rebel) political council and government to close the airport for all planes,” Mohammed Ali al-Huthi tweeted.
The Yemeni government immediately hit back, demanding the rebels disarm and withdraw from the flashpoint port city of Hodeida.
Yemen’s foreign ministry demanded the “coupist militias withdraw fully from the western coast and hand the area over to the legitimate government” via Twitter – a reference to rebelheld Hodeida, home to Yemen’s most valuable port.
The Saudi-led coalition has led an offensive to retake Hodeida, the last rebel stronghold on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, for months, sparking fears for more than 150,000 civilians trapped in the city as even hospitals were seized by militants.
The roots of the conf lict go back years, but a takeover of Yemeni territory by the Huthis triggered the 2015 intervention of Saudi Arabia and its allies on behalf of the Hadi government, widely considered a turning point in the war. — AFP
If the Yemeni capital’s airport is not opened to the Yemeni people in the peace talks in Sweden, I call on the (rebel) political council and government to close the airport for all planes.
Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, Huthi rebel official