Dubai: A spokesman for Yemen’s internationally recognized government says recent comments by the country’s rebels that they won’t give up the key port city of Hodeida, the focus of months of U.N.-brokered talks with the government, amounted to a “declaration of war.” Rajeh Badi said at a press conference on Wednesday that such remarks risk igniting vicious fighting once again in Hodeida, a key entry point for international aid to the war-torn country. He also said they violate a tentative peace agreement reached by the two sides in Sweden late last year.
A senior Al Houthi rebel leader in Yemen has said that his group will not give up the key port city of Hodeida, the focus of months of UN-brokered talks with the government.
Mohammad Ali Al Houthi, the head of the rebels’ Supreme Revolutionary Committees, told AP that while they have agreed to withdraw their forces from the city they will remain in control.
The statement is seemingly self-contradictory.
Hodeida is the main entry point for humanitarian aid to Yemen, where nearly four years of war has spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The two sides have agreed to withdraw their forces from the port, but are divided over who will run it once they pull out.
The UN-brokered deal was vague on that point, saying a “local force” would take over without specifying who would lead it.
UN envoy Martin Griffiths said on Tuesday “significant progress” has been made on the withdrawal of forces from Hodeida.
He said in a statement that “operational details” of the agreement on phase one of the redeployment will be presented to a UN committee shortly.
Griffiths said he looks forward to the committee’s “swift endorsement of the plan.”
A mutual pullout from Hodeida, which handles about 70 per cent of Yemen’s imports, and the two smaller ports of Salif and Ras Issa, was agreed to in Sweden in December and was seen as an important first step toward ending the conflict.
