Dubai: The Saudi-led coalition is prepared to use “calibrated force” to push the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement to withdraw from Yemen’s Hodeidah port city under a U.N.-sponsored deal, Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday
Yemen’s warring parties have failed to pull troops from the country’s main port under a month-old truce, reviving the threat of an all-out assault on Hodeidah that could unleash famine.
Gargash said the Coalition struck 10 Al Houthi training camps outside Hodeidah governorate on Wednesday.
“Coalition prepared to use more calibrated force to prod Houthi compliance with Stockholm Agreement,” Gargash tweeted.
The Houthis control Hodeidah while other Yemeni factions backed by the coalition trying to restore the internationally recognized government are massed on its outskirts.
“To preserve ceasefire & any hope for political process, UN and international community must press Houthis to stop violations, facilitate aid convoys, and move forward on withdrawal from Hodaida city & ports as agreed,” he added.
U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has been shuttling between the parties to rescue the deal, the first major diplomatic breakthrough of the nearly four-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the verge of starvation.
