UN ENVOY IN YEMEN TO DISCUSS HALT TO HOUTHI AGGRESSION

Sanaa, 19 Ramadan 1436/6 July 2015 (MINA) – U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, arrived in Sanaa on Sunday to discuss U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2216, which calls on Yemen’s Houthi militia to “immediately and unconditionally” halt all aggression, a Yemeni government official said on condition of anonymity.

The official told Anadolu Agency that Ahmed would meet with representatives of both the Houthi group and the General People’s Congress Party, led by former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

On April 14, UNSC Resolution 2216 — which was drafted by members of a Saudi-led anti-Houthi coalition and submitted by Jordan — was endorsed by 14 countries at the UNSC.

The resolution calls on Houthi forces to “immediately and unconditionally” end all violence; retreat from all areas of Yemen captured previously; return military equipment seized earlier; and release all political detainees and child soldiers.

According to the government official, while in Yemen, Ahmed will also discuss proposals for a new humanitarian truce to continue until the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which will begin on July 17, to allow the delivery of food and assistance to populations affected by the conflict, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Ahmed’s visit to Sanaa comes following earlier stops in the Gulf, where on Tuesday he spoke to officials in Muscat, Kuwait City and Riyadh.

In Muscat he met with Houthi representatives and in Riyadh he met with Yemen’s embattled president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

The Houthi-run SABA news agency, for its part, reported that at least 30 civilians in northern Yemen had been killed in an airstrike carried out by Saudi-led forces on Sunday during Ahmed’s visit.

Yemen has remained in chaos since last September, when the Shia Houthi militant group overran capital Sanaa. (T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)