Houthi militias set conditions during UN talks over Hodeidah handover

Despite their losses, Houthi militias have led talks by the United Nations to hand over control of Hodeidah port to the international body to fail due to unreasonable terms.

The United Nations Yemen mediator arrived in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Saturday for talks with the Houthis. Martin Griffiths’s proposal demands Houthis to handover the Hodeidah port to place under UN supervision, in an attempt to avert a possible assault on the city by a Saudi-led coalition.

Mark Lowcock, UN emergency relief coordinator, said on Monday that the United Nations was in touch with several U.N. member states about Hodeidah.

He said Griffiths was due to brief the Security Council on June 18. “And obviously the situation in Hodeidah is one of the things that he’s looking at,” he added.

Griffiths met several Houthi officials, including Mahdi al-Mashat, who holds the post of president in the Houthi-backed political body which controls most of north Yemen.

As government forces advance on Hodaidah, and despite the recent Houthi losses, the militia has set a list of terms for the United Nations in order to withdraw from Hodaidah, sources quoted by Al Arabiya have said.

The terms include paying the salaries to military and civilian personnel in areas controlled by the Houthis, the reopening of Sanaa Airport, permitting commercial air traffic, the cessation of air raids by the alliance and lifting the blockade on Yemeni ports.

They also added that they seek an apology for the killing of Saleh Ali al-Sammad, the dos senior Houthi official killed by the coalition during the three-year war.

A senior source at the Yemeni government quoted by Agence Frnace Press said the Houthis have set conditions that would prevent the success of the political solution.