Yemen government rejects UN force in Hodeida city
Al Yamani says Hodeida should come under control of his government
Rimbo, Sweden - Yemen's Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed govern ment on Tuesday exchanged lists of prisoners for a swap, according to delegates at the peace talks in Sweden.
The warring parties' two lists contain a combined total of around 15,000 names, they said.
The United Nations said Monday it was seeking $4 billion to provide humanitarian aid to some 20 million Yemenis next year - or about 70 percent of the war-stricken country's population.
Each year, the world body needs an additional billion dollars, UN Under Secretary General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said.
A donors' conference backed by Sweden, Switzerland and the UN is set to take place on February 26 in Geneva.
"We didn't have a cessation of hostilities," although the violence appears to have decreased, added Lowcock, who recently traveled to the country, expressing hope for a positive outcome to peace negotiations taking place in Sweden between the parties under UN auspices.
He denounced obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian aid, noting that Yemen also needs help to bring its economy back from the brink.
"Hodeida port is crucial" for humanitarian aid, Lowcock said, referring to the flashpoint city at the heart of negotiations in Sweden.
No to UN forces in Hodeida
Yemen’s Saudi-backed government is willing to accept a UN role in Hodeida’s seaport, a lifeline for millions of people during the country’s war, but not a long-term presence in the city itself, Foreign Minister Khalid Al Yamani said on Monday.
Mediator Martin Griffiths, who opened United Nations-sponsored peace talks between Yemen’s warring parties in Sweden last week, wants to avert a full-scale assault on the Red Sea city.
Al Yamani told Reuters that Hodeida, which is currently held by the Iranian-aligned Al Houthi militia, should come under the control of his government.
Al Houthis also control the capital Sana’a, which they seized in 2014 after ousting the internationally-recognised government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi that is backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
Control of Hodeida, Al Houthis’ main supply line, is one of the trickiest issues at the talks in Sweden, aimed at paving the way for a political process to end nearly four years of war.
Al Houthis told Reuters they want Hodeida to be declared a neutral zone.
The UN has proposed Yemen’s Al Houthi rebels withdraw from Hodeida as part of a ceasefire deal placing the flashpoint port city under joint control, according to a document seen by AFP Monday.
The document, verified by two sources in a Yemeni government delegation at UN-brokered talks in Sweden, stipulates that the Saudi-led military coalition fighting Al Houthis cease all operations in the rebel-held city in exchange for a Al Houthi withdrawal.
The area would then be put under the control of a joint committee and supervised by the United Nations.
Al Yamani rejected this idea. “The concept of peacekeeping or some sort of permanent presence of the UN – boots on the ground – or making the city as neutral is something that we will never accept,” he said on the sidelines of the talks.
Al Yamani, who heads the Hadi government delegation, said the city should be placed under the control of the interior ministry’s police forces as a matter of sovereignty.
However, the government is willing to accept the deployment of monitors from the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) in the port, the entry point for most of Yemen’s commercial goods and aid supplies.
It could also accept the transfer of port revenues to the central bank in Hodeida instead of routing them to Aden, the Hadi government’s temporary base, the minister said.
The UN is seeking agreement on a ceasefire in Hodeida as well as other confidence-building measures such as re-opening Sana’a airport during the talks, which have already announced agreement on a prisoner swap.
The Saudi-led alliance intervened in the civil war in 2015 to restore Hadi’s government.