Local Editor
The Saudi-backed resigned regime is willing to accept a U.N. 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, chief Hadi negotiator 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.
Yamani told Reuters that Hodeida should come under the control of his regime which has resigned four years ago.
Control of Hodeida 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.
The Houthis told Reuters they want Hodeida to be declared a neutral zone.
Yamani rejected this idea. "The concept of peacekeeping or some sort of permanent presence of the U.N. - 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.
Yamani, who heads the Hadi delegation, said the city should be placed under the control of the resigned regime.
The U.N. 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.
Prospects for the peace talks have risen as Western nations, some of which supply arms and intelligence to the Sunni Muslim coalition, press for an end to the war that has killed tens of thousands of people and left more than 8 million facing famine.
The conflict, seen widely in the region as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran, has come under increased scrutiny after the Oct. 2 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate that drew global condemnation.
The alliance intervened in the civil war in 2015 to forcefully bring back to power former Yemeni president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi but has faced military stalemate since seizing the southern port city of Aden the same year.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
