Al Houthis reject proposal to reopen Sana’a airport

UN mediator seeking confidence-building steps that could lead to ceasefire

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has proposed reopening the Al Houthi-held airport in the capital Sana’a on condition planes are inspected in the airports of Aden or Sayun which are under its control, two government officials said yesterday.

The Al Houthis rejected the proposal floated at UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden that are aimed at cementing confidence-building measures that could lead to a ceasefire to halt air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition and Al Houthi missile attacks on Saudi cities.

UN mediator Martin Griffiths wants a deal on reopening the airport, shoring up the central bank and securing a truce in Hodeidah, the country’s main port, held by the Al Houthis and a focus of the war after the coalition launched a campaign to capture it this year.

Agovernment offensive on Yemen’s Hodeida is still an option if the militia refuse to withdraw from the port city, a minister said on Thursday, as the warring sides met for UN-brokered talks.

“We are now in negotiations in response to calls by the international community. We are still looking into means towards peace,” said Othman Al Mujalli, Yemen’s agriculture minister.

“But if they [the militia] are not responsive, we have many options, including that of military decisiveness,” he said. “And we are ready.”

Yemen’s warring sides are holding talks in a picturesque castle just outside Stockholm. It is the first real talks in over two years. Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy, is shuttling between Al Houthi militia and representatives of the Yemeni government.

The Arab world’s poorest nation has been gripped by a three-year civil war fought between the Iranian-backed Al Houthis and Yemen’s internationally-recognised government. The talks aim to secure some confidence-building measures including a prisoner swap, the reopening of the airport in the capital Sana’a, and the possible UN administration of the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida.

A prisoner swap deal was announced on Thursday.

No closing date has been set for the meeting, where talks are expected to focus on the fate of Hodeida, a city on Yemen’s western coastline that houses the country’s most valuable port.

Rights groups have urged both sides to make concessions to spare further civilian suffering — as 14 million people edge towards famine and one child dies every 10 minutes of preventable causes.

While the days leading up to the gathering saw the government and rebels agreeing on a prisoner swap deal and the evacuation of wounded insurgents for medical treatment in Oman, both parties traded threats as the talks began. The two sides have not yet met face-to-face.

The government accuses Al Houthis of arms smuggling through Hodeida — also a conduit for 90 per cent of food imports.