SANA’A (Dispatches) – The first commercial flight in six years took off from Yemen’s capital on Monday, officials said, as part of a fragile truce in the county’s grinding Saudi-led war.
The Yemen Airways flight, with 151 passengers on board, was bound for Jordan’s capital of Amman, according to media outlets.
Earlier, the plane had arrived in Sana’a from the southern port city of Aden to pick up the passengers. On touchdown, it was welcomed by a ceremonial “water salute,” according to a video posted online by the national carrier.
The flight is part of the UN-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that the Saudi-backed mercenaries and militants on the one hand and the Sana’a-based government on the other struck last month. The truce, which went into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide cease-fire in Yemen in six years.
The truce accord calls for two commercial flights a week to and from Sana’a to Jordan and Egypt.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemeni Defense Minister Major General Mohammad al-Atifi said it is high time for the Saudi-led coalition forces and their allied militant groups to pull out of the country, stressing that the Yemeni Armed Forces now possess massive combat capabilities as well as advanced deterrent weapons.
He made the remarks on Sunday as he visited Yemeni army troops and fighters from allied popular committees stationed on the border with Saudi Arabia’s strategic southern region of Jizan.
“The time has come for the Saudi-led coalition to stop its aggression and withdraw its forces from Yemeni soil, and for the cruel blockade to be lifted completely. Future events will confirm that,” the Yemeni defense minister said.
He explained that the Yemeni Armed Forces have acquired high combat capabilities and expertise in all infantry and ground units, air defense units, and naval units, saying that they are in possession of sophisticated and high-precision armaments.
“The army forces keep developing their capabilities as it is necessary to maintain great strength and might in the face of the Saudi-led aggression and brutal siege,” Atifi stated.
He also noted that Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters, despite repeated violations by the war coalition, are adhering to the terms and conditions of the UN-brokered two-month ceasefire, because they put trust in their commanders and obey their commands.