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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Yemeni govt backs UN peace talks

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ADEN/DUBAI: The Arab coalition has ordered a halt in its offensive against Ansar Allah in Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah, three sources said on Thursday, in an apparent concession to Western pressure to end the war.


Key Western allies including the United States have been urgently calling for a ceasefire ahead of renewed UN-led peace efforts. The nearly four-year-old conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and caused a humanitarian disaster in an already impoverished Yemen.


“The coalition has instructed forces on the ground to halt fighting inside Hodeidah,” said one pro-coalition military source. A source in another military force backed by the coalition confirmed the order.


A third non-military source with knowledge of the decision said the coalition was responding to international requests for a ceasefire to ensure the Ansar Allah attend planned peace talks.


Hodeidah has become a key target for the coalition, which has been trying to oust the Ansar Allah since 2015 after they took control of the capital Sanaa and overthrew the government.


Western countries have been providing arms and intelligence to the coalition, but toughened their stance on Yemen after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul early last month.


The killing of Khashoggi sparked a global outcry prompted renewed scrutiny of the role in the conflict in Yemen.


Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al Malki would not confirm the order to halt the offensive had been given, saying operations were ongoing in the Red Sea port city, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis suffering severe shortages of food and other basic goods and a key supply line for the Ansar Allah.


The offensive, launched late last month, was the coalition’s second attempt to retake the city in order to cut the Ansar Allahs’ access to the port and force them to negotiate.


“Each operation has its own specifics and pace,” the coalition spokesman said, without providing details.


Mohammed Ali al Houthi, a Ansar Allah leader and member of the group’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said it had still not seen an official announcement about a cessation of hostilities and that skirmishes continued in outer suburbs of Hodeidah.


Street battles in Hodeidah have abated over the last three days and the city was calm on Thursday, residents said. Coalition warplanes have conducted intermittent air strikes, mostly in the evening.


“We heard some sporadic (mortar) shelling this morning, but it is very calm,” said resident Arwa Mohammed. “People have started to leave their houses and go outside. We don’t want the fighting to resume as our situation is miserable.”


International aid groups have warned a full-scale assault on Hodeidah, which handles 80 per cent of the impoverished country’s food imports and aid supplies, would risk triggering a famine. — Reuters


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