Abrar Hussain of DOT
A ceasefire agreement was finally reached yesterday with respect to the city of Hodeidah and its port, according to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres announced at a press conference concluding the peace talks on Yemen.
Guterres added that the agreement between Yemen’s warring parties included the deployment of neutral forces and the establishment of humanitarian corridors. A political framework will be discussed in a next round of meetings scheduled for January.
The withdrawal of armed forces from the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, a vital aid route caught up in the fighting, will happen “within days,” UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths said.
“The design of the withdrawal is first from the three ports, within days, then from the city,” Griffiths told reporters, referring to the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and, Ras Isa.
The pullout, which will open a road cutting across Hodeida crucial to humanitarian aid delivery, “has been agreed by both sides”, Griffiths claimed.
Guterres also said that consensus has been reached regarding aid delivery to Taiz.
The Saudi ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber said that the agreement includes a Houthi withdrawal from Taiz and the release of thousands of detainees.
Al-Jaber said the agreements, which have not been released to the public in full after talks in Sweden, required the Houthis “withdrawing from the city and port of Hodeidah, as well as Taiz, and the release of thousands of detainees and prisoners.”
Meanwhile, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash welcomed the agreement between Yemen’s warring parties to a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Thursday.
-Source: Arab News