In total, four aircraft have arrived at the port city since the symbolic reopening of Aden’s worldwide airport on Wednesday, which followed almost four months of fierce fighting.
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If confirmed, the talks would be the first between Saleh, who is allied to Shia Houthi militants now battling pro-government forces, and members of the Saudi-led coalition that is providing air support for the campaign to regain areas of the country now under Houthi control. An aircraft from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed at dawn on Friday at Aden airport carrying humanitarian aid, Al Arabiya reported.
“There are negotiations in Cairo between the leaders of the Congress party and diplomats from the US, Britain and the UAE to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Yemen and lift the siege on the grounds as continuation of the war and the siege serve extremist groups”, Adel Shuja, a leader of the party Saleh leads, said.
Despite being forced to step down in 2012 under a Gulf-brokered transition plan following mass protests against his decades of rule, Mr Saleh has remained a powerful political player operating behind the scenes, enjoying immunity under the deal. In the wake of Aden’s recapture, his ministers are slowly returning there.
Aden and the other southern provinces have been largely inaccessible to United Nations food aid, and about 13 million people – more than half the population – are thought to be in dire need of food.
“The last two weeks have seen an intensification of fighting in the southern governorates of Aden and Taiz where it is becoming increasingly hard for us to reach affected areas, to evacuate the dead and the wounded and to provide life-saving assistance”, Antoine Grand, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said in a statement. The anti-Houthi forces made significant gains in Aden over the past week, with battles to drive the rebels and their allies out of the city stretching on for days.
Taking advantage of a day of relative calm, a boat chartered by the global Committee of the Red Cross and loaded with humanitarian aid was able to dock on Thursday.
In the latest military action, coalition warplanes bombed targets across Yemen including the capital Sanaa on Friday, according to Houthi media Saba news and security sources.
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“All sides must facilitate our access and respect our mandate”, it said.
