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Top Huthi rebel calls for halt to attacks in Yemen
SANAA, Nov 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A high-ranking Huthi official has called
for rebels to stop firing rockets and using attack drones in the conflict in
Yemen, as a UN envoy prepares to travel to the country to prepare peace
talks.
Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, head of the Higher Revolutionary Committee and an
influential political figure, tweeted that his group wants “all official
Yemeni parties” to demand a ceasefire.
“We announce an initiative to call all official Yemeni parties to ask to
end launching rockets and drones against aggression countries… in order to
deprive them for any reason to continue their aggression and siege, along a
readiness to freeze and stop all military operations on all fronts in order
to reach peace,” he wrote.
His comments come after UN special envoy Martin Griffiths said on Friday
that he plans to travel to rebel-held Sanaa in the coming week to finalise
arrangements for peace talks to take place in Sweden soon.
Griffiths — whose efforts at kick-starting peace talks collapsed in
September — said both the Saudi-backed government and the Huthi rebels have
shown a “renewed commitment” to work on a political solution and have given
“firm assurances” that they will attend the talks. No date has yet been set.
Ali al-Huthi said his call for an end to missile and drone attacks was
aimed at “supporting the efforts of the (UN) envoy and proving our good
intentions”, adding that the move comes after “our contact with the UN enjoy
and his request to stop launching missiles and drones”.
Thousands of people have died in the bloody conflict, and fighting
intensified last week after clashes escalated in the Red Sea city of Hodeida,
whose port serves as an entry point for nearly all of the country’s
commercial imports and humanitarian aid.
The rebels seized the capital Sanaa and Hodeida in 2014, prompting Saudi
Arabia and its allies to intervene on the government’s side the following
year.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since then, according to the World
Health Organization, in what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis.
Rights groups believe the toll may be five times as high.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1015 hrs