Smoke rises after a Saudi-led airstrike in Sana’a, Yemen, on July 10, 2015.
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“We insist that the ceasefire be a genuine one under certain rules and conditions, and without the rebels against legitimacy [the Houthis] exploiting the truce to redeploy their military units and block the delivery of humanitarian aid to those Yemenis most in need of it”, Yassin emphasized. Hadi officials did not address their involvement.
“If the cease-fire [that came into effect on midnight Friday] is observed throughout Yemen – and in Taiz, Aden and Maarib in particular – and humanitarian aid is delivered to these cities without falling into the hands of the Houthis, it would help relieve the problems faced by Yemeni civilians”, Karman told Anadolu Agency on Sunday. The fighting was in a suburb of Aden, which the Hadi forces seized.
Another official of the pro-Houthi group cited in a press conference that there is already a widespread damage in Saada, Houthi’s stronghold.
Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombarded Yemeni rebels yesterday, witnesses said, in a new blow to a UN-proposed truce in the impoverished country where millions are threatened with starvation.
Clashes also persisted in the central city of Taez and in the southern Shabwa province, where the Popular Resistance said 21 of its fighters were killed in three days of clashes.
Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Asiri, the spokesman of the coalition, was reported by al Sharq al Awsat newspaper as saying there would be no truce because Houthis were not committed to a ceasefire and no United Nations observers had been deployed on the ground to monitor possible violations.
In related events and developments to the cease-fire, the Arab media have reported that internationally-recognized government and Yemen’s Saudi-based vice president Khaled Bahah was to attend a meeting in Cairo on Sunday with top Egyptian leaders in order to discuss the current conflict.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began their campaign against the Houthis after the group staged a coup against President Hadi and his government in February.
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Arafat Madabish contributed additional reporting from Sana’a.
