Yemen demands clear UN condemnation of Houthi refusal to open Taiz road
The Yemeni government has demanded that the UN envoy to the country, Hans Grundberg, clearly condemn the Houthis after they refused to open roads to Taiz under the humanitarian truce.
The Yemeni government’s negotiating team has warned that the Houthis’ refusal to open roads to Taiz could lead to the collapse of the truce, especially in the absence of serious international pressure to lift the seven-and-a-half-year blockade on the province.
The head of the Yemeni government negotiating team at the Jordan Consultations, Abdul Karim Shaiban, issued the warning during a press conference held Sunday in one of Taiz’s closed outlets in an effort to draw attention to the Houthi deadly siege on the vital city.
Shaiban said negotiations had returned to square one; No progress was made after nearly two weeks of UN-sponsored consultations in Jordan under the truce, and the Houthis rejected a UN proposal to open closed roads.
The Yemeni government agreed to the UN envoy’s proposal to open roads in Taiz, despite the fact that it meets the least humanitarian needs, but Houthi’s militias requested to study the proposal in Sanaa before returning and officially rejecting it.
The Yemeni official stressed the need for the UN envoy to condemn the Houthis for rejecting the proposal, noting that the militias want to impose a special proposal that they exploit militarily.
Houthi’s proposal is to open side roads that were previously used by the bear and cannot accommodate four-wheel drive vehicles. It also calls for opening a link between Aden and Sanaa, not to Taiz, in order to impose taxes and profit from it economically.
Regarding the Yemeni government’s decision to open the Sanaa airport and the port of Hodeidah, he said it did not open to Houthi militias, but to the people based on the recognized government’s concern for the lives of the Yemeni people.
The UN sponsored two-week negotiations between the Yemeni government and Houthi militias in Jordan to open roads to Taiz and other governorates under the UN truce, but the putschists refused to make any concessions.
The humanitarian truce went into effect in early April and was renewed for another two months in June. The Yemeni government and the Arab coalition have fulfilled their terms, and Houthi has not implemented any clause, including lifting the siege of Taiz and delivering salaries.
