Yemen’s Ansarullah Criticizes UN Envoy for Failing to Deliver Promises
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Spokesman Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah Movement Mohammad Abdul-Salam UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, for failing to take any steps toward building trust and doing nothing for peace in Yemen but making empty promises.
“In his recent trip to Yemen, Griffiths offered nothing new and failed to deliver on his promises for building trust,” said Abdul-Salam, who is also the movement’s chief negotiator in Yemen peace talks.
Since he began his mission as the UN special envoy for Yemen, Griffiths has failed to do anything beyond making promises, the Houthi official said.
He regretted that the UN envoy has failed to take steps for the release of prisoners, reopening of airports and ending the “cruel” blockade of Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition.
These failures make one wonder whether the UN can be trusted, he added.
Referring to calls for talks with the Saudi-led alliance, Abdul-Salam said negotiating with the side that seeks to achieve from the negotiations what it has been unable to achieve on the battlefield is “meaningless”.
Yemen was grappling with a domestic political conflict when the Saudi regime and its allies intervened in March 2015 and unleashed a military campaign in favor of the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close Riyadh ally who had earlier resigned and fled to the Saudi capital.
Another party to the conflict is Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement which has been running state affairs from Sana’a in the absence of an effective government besides defending the country against the Saudi aggression.
The offensive initially consisted of a bombing campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen.
Over the past few months, Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Hadi and foreign mercenaries have been fighting Houthi Ansarullah for the control of the port city of Hudaydah, a vital conduit and lifeline for the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of Yemeni people.
Earlier this month, the administration of Hadi announced that it would take part in UN-proposed peace talks in Sweden, hours after the chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said Ansarullah fighters were halting their retaliatory attacks as a goodwill measure to speed up the “peace” process.
Griffiths, who visited Yemen last Thursday, said that he has received “firm assurances” that the warring Yemeni parties would attend talks in the Swedish city of Stockholm.
The Saudi-backed side has, however, stepped up the raids aimed at seizing Hudaydah despite the peace efforts.
Ansarullah has warned that the rise in Saudi assaults on Hudaydah could frustrate efforts by Griffiths to rekindle peace talks in Sweden next month.
