Al Mukalla: Al Houthis pledged in writing to US Secretary of State John Kerry in Oman that they would return to peace talks with the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia in Dhahran Al Janoub of the kingdom’s Assir province and would accept terms of Kerry’s initiative that suggests forming a national unity government, Yemen foreign minister, Abdul Malek Al Mekhlafi said on Wednesday night in a interview with Al Jazeera.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State triggered angry reactions from the internationally recognised government when he unexpectedly announced that Al Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition agreed to a ceasefire and all Yemeni parties agreed to form a unity government by the end of the year.
“We have called the US foreign ministry, which told us that there was an agreement with Al Houthis that would contribute to peace [in Yemen],” Al Mekhlafi said.
Al Houthis and their ally, the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh have said they support the US-proposed truce deal that was expected to take affect on Thursday night.
Al Mekhlafi said that his government would reject any pressure to “surrender” to Al Houthis by accepting the latest UN peace plan that demands stripping president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi of his powers.
Similarly, Nasser Taha Mustafa, a media adviser to Hadi, said that the latest peace plan by the UN envoy to Yemen has put the Yemeni government in conflict with the UN for the first time since the beginning of the transitional period in Yemen in early in late 2011.
Nasser said in an article in Al Hayat newspaper on Wednesday that during peace talks with the rebel forces, sponsors of the political process in Yemen used to turn to the Yemeni government to get concessions to make a breakthrough when Al Houthis disregarded their demands. “The Yemeni government has begun feeling the negative effects of its flexibility and goodwill towards ideas of UN envoy,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the ground, fighting raged on Thursday between the government forces and Al Houthis in many war-torn provinces in Yemen. Army commanders said on Thursday that at least 31 Al Houthis and several loyalists were killed in the southern city of Taiz on Wednesday and Thursday. Colonel Mansour Al Hassani, a spokesperson for the Supreme Military Council in Taiz, told Gulf News that government forces have liberated more than 20 areas in different districts in the city. “We have arrested 10 Al Houthis and seized arms.”
Al Hassani said that at least 20 incarcerated political activists were set free when the government forces stormed a house used as a prison by Al Houthis.