Saudi Arabia Announces 5-Day ’Humanitarian’ Ceasefire in Yemen
Local Editor
After killing hundreds of civilians in a US-led Saudi aggression against Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United States said on Thursday that a renewable, five-day ’humanitarian’ ceasefire in Yemen would start soon.
At a joint news conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia would halt airstrikes against Yemen because it is determined to expand ’relief assistance’ to the Yemeni people.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the so-called ’humanitarian pause’ wouldn’t start for several days.
The announcement was made after Kerry met Saudi King Salman and other top Saudi officials in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh.
They said they would provide an update on Friday in Paris, where they will gather with the foreign ministers of other Arab countries.
Saudi Arabia has been blocking aid to Yemen, whereby it recently prevented two Iranian civilian planes last month [April] from delivering medical aid and foodstuff to the Yemeni people.
Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a United Nations mandate - in a bid to undermine Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Saudis.
