SANAA —
UN special envoy
Hans Grundberg started his first visit to Yemen’s rebel-held
capital Monday, following an April 2 ceasefire that the country’s warring
parties have accused each other of violating.
اضافة اعلان
The Swedish diplomat is scheduled to meet Houthi
rebel officials during his first Sanaa visit since taking office in September.
“He is looking
forward to engaging with
Ansar Allah (Houthi) leadership on implementing and
strengthening the truce and discussing the way forward,” Grundberg’s office
said in a tweet announcing his arrival.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents took control of
Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention the
following year and triggering what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian
crisis.
The two-month ceasefire declared at the start of the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan has largely held.
“Since the start of the truce, we have seen a
significant reduction of violence,” Grundberg told a virtual press conference
last week.
However, both
sides have traded blame over violations, with the government accusing the
rebels of military deployments and drone attacks while the insurgents say they
“repelled an advance” by loyalists.
A Yemeni military source also told AFP on Friday
that loyalist forces had “repelled a Houthi attack” in southern Marib, the
government’s last stronghold in the north of the country.
Grundberg has urged all parties to exercise
“restraint”, tweeting that he was “following very closely the latest
developments in Marib”.
On Thursday, Yemen’s Riyadh-based President
Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi announced he was handing over his powers to a new
leadership council tasked with reaching a “final political solution” with the
Houthis.
The current, renewable truce called for a halt to
all ground, air, and sea military operations. Two commercial flights a week can
resume in and out of Sanaa, and 18 fuel ships are allowed into the Houthi-held
port of Hodeida.
Yemen’s brutal war has killed hundreds of thousands directly
and indirectly and left millions on the brink of famine in what has long been
the Arab world’s poorest country.
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