AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak said on Monday that his government is committed to supporting the current UN-brokered truce and alleviating the suffering of Yemenis, despite the ongoing Houthi violations across the country.
The minister reiterated his government’s pledges under the truce to stop hostilities and facilitate the arrival of fuel ships to Hodeidah seaport and the resumption of flights from the Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport, urging the international community to order the Houthis to stop threatening the truce.
“We renew the government’s commitment to implement the truce with all its elements without cherry-picking, even though the continuing military violations (by the Houthis),” he said in a statement.
The truce that went into effect on April 2 suffered a heavy blow on April 24 after the first commercial flight scheduled to take off from Sanaa airport was postponed indefinitely after the Houthis insisted on adding passengers with passports issued by the militia.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government said that the Houthis exploited the truce to transport heavy weapons and military vehicles to flashpoint sites outside the central city of Marib and are expected to generate 90 billion Yemeni riyals ($90 million) from selling the 18 fuel ships that were allowed to enter Hodeidah seaport during the cessation of hostilities.
“Through cherry-picking terms of the truce, the Houthi militia proved that their priority is to collect funds to finance the war machine and enrich its leaders,” the Yemeni minister said.
Earlier this month, Yemen’s Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani accused the Houthis of breaching the 2018 Stockholm Agreement with the government by looting revenues from oil sales that were supposed to be used for paying the salaries of public servants in the Houthi-controlled areas, adding that the predicted 90 billion riyals of revenues from the oil sales during the truce would be enough to pay the salaries of thousands of government workers for three months.
The Houthis have not paid the salaries of government employees since September 2016 after Yemen’s former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi relocated the headquarters of the central bank from Sanaa to Aden to stop the Yemeni militia from plundering its reserves.
Meanwhile, three Yemeni soldiers were wounded after the army shot down an explosives-laden drone launched by the Houthis south of Marib.
A local military official told Arab News on Monday that the Houthis fired the drone at a gathering of government troops and mounted an attack in a bid to seize control of Radaha mountain in Marib.
“Their attacks and mobilization of forces are still going on during the truce. We foiled their attack on Radaha,” the official, who preferred to be unknown, said.