Pro-government liaison officers at joint observation posts in Yemen’s Hodeidah abandoned their positions after a Houthi militia sniper targeted one of them, military sources said.
Spokesman for the government's joint forces in Hodeidah Wadah Al-Dubaish said that a Houthi sniper shot at liaison officer Mohammed Abdurrab Sharaf Al-Soleihi, who is now at the intensive care unit of a local hospital.
As a result of Houthi actions, government liaison officers suspended their participation at joint observation posts, the single achievement accomplished by the UN-sponsored Stockholm Agreement in 13 months.
Dubaish, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, pointed out that there will be a meeting between government representatives and the deputy head of the UN mission to discuss the serious Houthi escalation.
Liaison officers are pressing for a condemnation of the militias’ action.
Dubaish suggested that the UN mission will be unable to do anything to deter the Houthi group's violations. This threatens the resumption of the military operation to liberate Hodeidah and the cancellation of the Stockholm Agreement.
The military spokesman accused senior Houthi liaison officer Ahmed Jaber of controlling the UN mission’s decision and preventing it from issuing any statement condemning the militias.
The creation of five joint observation posts is the sole progress achieved by the Stockholm Agreement, despite its signing back in December 2018.
More so, Yemeni politicians have accused the head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha, of “favoring” Houthis, and “turning a blind eye” to their booby-trapped boats and naval mines in the Red Sea.
“Coalition airstrikes hinder the peace process and jeopardize the implementation of the Hodeidah deal,” Guha has said in a statement.
On Sunday, the Arab Coalition said its aircraft had carried out “typical operation against Houthi military targets in Salif district,” to the north of Hodeidah city.
“The targeted sites were used for preparing and carrying out hostile acts and terrorist operations threatening international navigation and trade routes in Bab al-Mandab Strait and south of the Red Sea,” the Coalition said in a statement.
Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani expressed surprise at Guha’s statement regarding the qualitative operation carried out by the Coalition against Houthi military targets in Salif. The attack destroyed sites used to assemble and launch bomb-rigged boats that constituted a threat to maritime navigation.
