Dubai: Yemen’s exiled government has said that negotiations between the Al Houthi militia and a US delegation in Oman will not lead to stability in the war-ravaged country.
This comes after reports that the Al Houthis and representatives of the Saudi-led coalition have reached an agreement in Muscat to end the war. The reports suggested that the Al Houthis had agreed to abide by UN resolutions.
In its first statement on the secretive negotiations, the exiled government’s spokesperson Rajeh Badi said that the government “will not be bound by any such agreement,” the BBC reported, citing Yemeni media close to exiled Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The position, if confirmed, contradicts report that a preliminary agreement has been reached by the negotiating parties. Gulf News’ requests for comments from Al Houthi and government officials went unanswered.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition pounded Sana’a with more than 20 air strikes starting late on Saturday and lasting into Sunday morning, as Riyadh said a soldier had been killed in cross-border shelling from Yemen.
Army bases, the Yemeni air force headquarters and a stadium being used by Al Houthi rebels, who control the capital, were among the targets hit in the Sana’a raids, witnesses said.
There was no immediate information as to casualties.
Saudi Interior Ministry spokesperson Mansour Al Turki, meanwhile, said that a soldier was killed and seven injured when border guards in the Harath area were hit by shelling from Yemeni territory.
The incident happened on Saturday evening, Al Turki said. Saudi authorities have reported several previous deaths of troops and civilians in shelling from inside Yemen.
The Al Houthi movement’s Al Maseerah television broadcaster aired footage purportedly showing Yemeni troops and tribal fighters shelling and raiding Saudi border posts, in what they say is a response to the Saudi-led air strikes against the militia.
Saudi Arabia and Arab allies launched air strikes against the militia in late March after they advanced on President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s temporary capital in the southern city of Aden, forcing him to flee the country.
The Saudis fear that the Al Houthi advance will give regional rival Iran, whom they accuse of backing the rebels, a strategic foothold on the Arabian peninsula.
The United Nations, meanwhile, put the total death toll in the conflict at 1,976, and said it had displaced more than half a million people.
The humanitarian situation in southern Yemeni provinces where local fighters have been battling the Al Houthis and allied military units was deteriorating “at an alarming rate,” the UN said.
— With inputs from agencies
