Local Editor
Hadi regime Representatives at the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida suspended their meetings with Michael Lollesgard who heads the UN monitoring mission in the city, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
“The regime team was not allowed to enter Hodeida’s ports to monitor the Houthi withdrawal and decided to continue boycotting the meetings with Lollesgard for that reason,” Waddah told Xinhua by phone.
“The regime team has the right to enter Hodeida’s ports to ensure removal of all armed elements,” he said.
The spokesman described the Houthis’ withdrawal from Hodeida’s ports as “a misleading step that affected the credibility of Lollesgard” who supervised the process as a head of the joint RCC.
The last meeting that included Hadi representatives together with Lollesgard was held in the southern port city of Aden on May 11.
The warring parties in Yemen reached a UN-backed deal in Stockholm in December 2018, which included a governorate-wide cease-fire of Hodeida and the formation of the RCC to monitor withdrawal of troops by both the government and the Houthis in the area.
During the past weeks, the Houthi revolutionaries announced that the first phase of their three-day redeployment in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida was completed under the UN supervision.
According to the Stockholm Agreement, the first phase will see the Houthis withdraw five km from the three ports of Hodeida, while the Hadi loyalists should pull out four km to the south of Kilo-8 area.
The UN monitoring mission headed by Lollesgard visited the war-torn city and welcomed the Houthis' handover of the security of Hodeida ports to the coast guards.
The long-delayed UN-sponsored Stockholm Agreement, the first step toward a comprehensive political solution focused on the port city of Hodeida, lifeline for Yemen’s most commercial imports and humanitarian aid.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
