Local Editor
A high-ranking Yemeni official says delegates from the Houthi Ansarullah movement agreed to sit at the negotiating table with representatives loyal to former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi during the latest round of UN-sponsored peace negotiations in Sweden, and struck a peace deal only because of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the crisis-hit Arab country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Press TV television news network on Tuesday, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, said despite some violations by Saudi Arabia and its allies, the peace deal continues to stand feebly.
He, however, underlined that Yemeni army forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees are fully prepared to respond to any act of aggression committed by Saudi Arabia.
Houthi then stressed the need for a political solution to the ongoing Yemen conflict, and an end to the atrocious Saudi-led bombardment campaign on the country.
He concluded that Saudi Arabia has failed to attain its goals in the war on Yemen, and that the oil-rich conservative kingdom will never reach them.
Ansarullah delegates and Hadi loyalists held a round of peace negotiations in Rimbo, north of the Swedish capital city of Stockholm, last month. The talks resulted in the announcement of a break-through agreement.
The document includes three provisions: a ceasefire along the Hudaydah front and the redeployment of armed forces out of the city and its port; an agreement on prisoner exchange; and a statement of understanding on the southern Yemeni city of Taiz.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing Hadi’s government back to power and crushing the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
