The Daily Star
United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths met Yemeni officials in Riyadh Monday as part of efforts to kick-start peace talks next month between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government. The visit comes as a tenuous calm settles over Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for imports and aid that had seen fierce clashes in a renewed offensive by an Arab military coalition.
Under heavy international pressure, the Yemeni government and the coalition have largely suspended their five-month-old battle to seize Hodeida.
Griffiths, who is spearheading efforts to hold peace talks in Sweden in December, met Yemen’s Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and Foreign Minister Khalid al-Yamani in the Saudi capital, the Yemeni state-run news agency Saba said.
The Yemeni leaders discussed with Griffiths arrangements for the upcoming negotiations and possible “confidence building measures” to test the “rebels’ seriousness” about peace efforts, Saba reported.
The Unitd Nations envoy, who visited Hodeida last week in order to assess the humanitarian situation, was also expected to meet with Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi.
Fighting in the Red Sea city intensified in early November as coalition-backed loyalist forces attempted to enter the city, but calm returned after Griffiths arrived in Yemen Wednesday. Griffiths has urged the warring parties to “keep the peace” in Hodeida.
While the loyalist advance there has largely stalled, minor clashes have continued.
Military officials quoted by Saba Sunday evening said that the loyalists had foiled a Houthi “infiltration attempt” into a camp in Hays, a district about 100 kilometers south of Hodeida.
The rebels said they had detonated an explosive device near the eastern entrance of Hodeida, “destroying a [pro-government] military vehicle … killing and wounding soldiers inside,” Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported. Loyalists did not confirm the attack.
But pro-government military officials said that their operations in the east and south of the Red Sea city had been suspended.Yemeni tribal leaders also Monday said a suspected U.S. drone strike killed six alleged Al-Qaeda militants in the country’s southwest.
The tribal leaders said the unmanned aircraft targeted an Al-Qaeda hideout in al-Qrishia district in Bayda province Sunday, killing two commanders and four other militants. The tribal leaders spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their own safety. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni group is known, has long been considered the network’s most dangerous branch and has attempted to carry out attacks on the U.S. mainland.
Yemen was plunged into civil war more than three years ago. Since March 2015, an Arab coalition has been battling Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Al-Qaida and a Daesh (ISIS) affiliate have exploited the chaos to expand their presence in Yemen.