United States envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking kicked off his new tour of the region in Riyadh where he held talks with Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi.
Lenderking is in the region to garner support for the extension of the nationwide truce in the war-torn country that expired on October 2.
The Iran-backed Houthi militias had refused proposals by United Nations envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to extend and expand the ceasefire. During a briefing at the UN Security Council on Thursday, Grundberg said the Houthis had made “additional demands that could not be met.”
Lenderking and al-Alimi discussed the situation in Yemen and reviewed efforts to renew the truce, reported the Saba news agency.
They tackled the “required guarantees and pressure” to make the Houthis respect their commitments in line with the truce, which was first adopted in April and extended on two occasions for a two-month period each.
They also addressed the Stockholm Agreement on the Hodeidah province, the reopening of routes to the Houthi-besieged city of Taiz and paying the salaries of public sector employees from Hodeidah port revenues.
Al-Alimi stressed that the Presidential Leadership Council and government were committed to reaching comprehensive and sustainable peace in Yemen based on the agreed references. They were also committed to supporting Grundberg and Lenderking’s efforts to ease the suffering of the Yemeni people.
Lenderking is in the region to “support intensive, UN-led negotiations with the Yemeni parties to reach agreement on a truce extension and expansion, for the sake of Yemenis,” the US State Department had said on Tuesday.
“The Houthis have an opportunity to support an expanded truce agreement that would provide millions of Yemenis with immediate relief, including much-needed civil servant salary payments, opening roads to and through Taiz and across the country, more flight destinations from Sanaa, and a path to a durable, inclusive Yemen-led peace process, that includes Yemenis’ calls for justice, accountability, and redress for human rights violations and abuses,” it added.
“The truce remains the best opportunity for peace Yemenis have had in years. The United States and the international community stand ready to support an expanded truce,” it stressed.
The government had said that it was flexible in dealing with the truce proposals suggested by Grundberg.
The Houthis “responded to this flexibility with unjustified intransigence that only prioritizes the expansionist Iranian agenda in the region at the expense of the Yemeni people’s interests, security and stability,” he added.
Houthi leader, Abdulmalek al-Houthi has urged his followers to recruit new fighters, reiterating the militias’ demands to end the crisis, starting with lifting restrictions on the delivery of Iranian weapons to ports held by the militias. The Houthis have also been demanding that the Saudi-led Arab coalition cease its support to the legitimate government.
The international community fears that the end of the true and Houthi intransigence may lead to renewed clashes on a wide scale in Yemen. The country had witnessed a remarkable drop in fighting throughout the six months when the truce was in place.
