SANA’A (Dispatches) – There can be no peace in Yemen as long as the Saudi-led coalition continues its raids and strikes on the country, a top Yemeni official says.
“We are ready for real peace, not deception, and we have presented several initiatives in this regard,” Almasirah TV channel reported Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi as saying.
“The problem lies in the hostile countries’ insistence to continue their aggression, siege, and evasion, without taking practical steps even on the humanitarian file,” he added, in reference to the Saudi-led coalition.
Al-Houthi called on the coalition countries and their mercenaries to stop the raids and end the occupation, saying only then will the Yemeni army stop its retaliatory attacks.
Saudi Arabia and many of its allies have been waging a war on Yemen since 2015 to restore power there to the country’s Riyadh-friendly former officials.
The war and a simultaneous siege that the Saudi-led coalition has been enforcing on the Arab world’s already poorest nation, has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis.
The invasion has pushed the entire Yemen close to the brink of outright famine, turning the country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemen’s defense forces have, however, vowed not to lay down their arms or stop their resistance operations until the country’s complete liberation.
Yemeni officials hold the West and the international community responsible for the catastrophe in Yemen either by their failure to address the issue or by supporting the Saudi-led coalition.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement ruled out a meeting with the United Nations’ new special envoy for Yemen unless the tight land, air and sea blockade by Saudi Arabia and its regional allies on the impoverished Arab country is fully lifted.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, who is also the chief negotiator of Ansarullah movement, said in a tweet on Sunday that it would be futile to hold talks with the United Nations’ new special envoy for Yemen without taking into account the group’s key conditions under stalled peace efforts. He said the Saudi siege removal on Yemen is the prerequisite of any future peace negotiation.
“There is no use in having any dialogue before airports and ports are opened as a humanitarian necessity and priority,” Abdulsalam said in response to Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg’s appointment.