The United Nations Security Council voted on Monday to extend the mandate of the organization’s mission to support a peace deal in Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah.
Its mission will be extended an additional six months and end on January 2020.
The council called for the implementation of the agreement on Hodeidah and its three ports according to the Stockholm deal that was reached in December 2018 between the legitimate government and Iran-backed Houthi militias.
The council members unanimously agreed to extend the mission’s mandate at the request of Britain.
The mission will monitor the warring parties’ adherence to the ceasefire and redeployment of forces in Hodeidah city and its Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa ports.
The United Nations is trying to broker a withdrawal from Hodeidah so UN-supervised management can take over.
Government and Houthi representatives met on a UN ship in the Red Sea for talks on Sunday and Monday, a UN statement said.
The two sides met as members of the Redeployment Coordination Committee, a body set up by the United Nations and chaired by Danish Lieutenant General Michael Lollesgaard to oversee the ceasefire and troop exit.
The committee finalized conceptual agreement on troop withdrawals, which now required political leaders’ buy-in, the statement said.
Political leaders would also have to agree on “local security forces, local authority and revenues”, the statement said, without elaborating.