The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced on Saturday the evacuation of relief organizations and their employees from the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, due to the “dire security situation that resulted from the criminality of Houthi militias backed from Iran.”
In a statement, the group accused the Houthi militias of putting obstacles on aid work and said they were in violation of the international law by not protecting the aid workers.
Meanwhile, sources from the General People’s Congress (GPC) party told Asharq Al-Awsat that six officials from the Congress would become permanent representatives in any future peace talks, based on “UN assurances.”
The list includes assistant secretary-general of the GPC, Yasser al-Awadi, former Foreign Minister and head of the Media Committee at the GPC, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, member of the central committee of the GPC, Faika al-Sayed, member of the GPC Secretariat, Yahya Doueid, former governor of the Hadramaut governorate, Khaled al-Dini, and deputy secretary of the Sana’a GPC sector, Ayed al-Shamiri.
Two days after the killing of former President Abdullah Saleh, UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had said that a delegation from the GPC party would be a “main component in any peace talks.”
Asharq Al-Awsat spoke with the envoy’s office to confirm the list of names that would represent the party in Yemen’s peace negotiation, but could not receive any response.
Since the killing of Saleh on Dec. 4, Houthi militias launched a series of arrest campaigns and committed massacres against civilians in the capital.
The sources, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, could not deny or assert the killing of any person as a result of the security situation currently witnessed in Sana’a and governorates under Houthi occupation.
Ould Cheikh had already commented on the situation in Sana’a in a tweet posted on his account lately, describing “the developments in Sana’a as unacceptable and a violation of international law.”
