Iran-backed Houthis undermining peace efforts

The Iran-backed Houthi militia are to blame for the failure to extend an UN-brokered truce, Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Dr. Ahmed BinMubarak said.

The group is deliberately blocking the peace process with the intention to bring Yemen back to a state of war, the Yemen News Agency (SABA) quoted BinMubarak as saying on Wednesday.

The Yemeni government has repeatedly offered significant concessions in a bid to reach a truce agreement that would ease the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Houthis have created, the minister said. His statements came during a meeting with the Charge d’affaires of the British embassy in Yemen.

For his part, the British diplomat confirmed his country’s support for the legitimate Yemeni government, as well as for Yemen’s unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Meanwhile, Luay Al-Eryani, Charge d’affaires of Yemen’s embassy in Germany, discussed the latest developments in Yemen and the Houthis’ failure to agree to a truce with Philip Kanbman, Deputy Director of Middle East and North Africa Department of the German foreign ministry.

Al-Eryani confirmed the Yemeni government’s desire to renew the truce and the Iran-backed group’s rejection of it. For his part, the German official expressed the importance of achieving a truce to ensure a return of peace in Yemen, according to SABA.