Hodeidah (November 07, 2018): The Trump administration is demanding a cease-fire and the launch of U.N. led political talks to end the Saudi-Iran proxy war in Yemen.
The UN has called for urgent ceasefire near main hospital in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in Yemen.
The head of the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, Henrietta Fore said in a statement that war has threatened the lives of children.
She said, the UNICEF has called on all parties to stop attacks and ensure safety of civilians to access the hospital.
She said, forty per cent of children in the country are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, and the toppling of the government by the Houthis, a Shiite Muslim minority in the country.
The Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.
An estimated 10,000 people have been killed. The war has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid, and more than 8 million at risk of starvation.
Pompeo urged a cease-fire, citing both missile and drone strikes into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by Houthis and the airstrikes “in all populated areas” of Yemen by the U.S.-backed Arab coalition.
Mattis was more specific than Pompeo in his call for urgent movement toward a political solution to the fighting under peace talks being urged by the U.N. special envoy, Martin Griffiths.
Mattis said a cease-fire should take effect within 30 days.
“We’re calling on all the parties, specifically the Houthis and the Arab coalition, to meet in Sweden in November and to come to a solution,” Mattis said.
The U.S. proposal was greeted with skepticism in Houthi-controlled Sanaa. Sultan Al-Samaey, a member of the Houthi political council, said that while the war needed to be brought to an end, the group would only support “a peace which will preserve our independence.”He urged implementation of “confidence-building measures” to address the underlying issues of the conflict.
Mattis called for demilitarization of Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia
“so that the Saudis and the Emirates do not have to worry about missiles coming into their homes and cities and airports.” He also said measures should be taken to “ensure that all Iranian-supplied missiles to the Houthis” are put under “international watch.”
“This has got to end. We’ve got to replace combat with compromise,” Mattis said.
Mattis put the primary blame on Iran. He said its proxies and surrogate forces are fueling the conflict.
A top Turkish prosecutor said that Khashoggi, who wrote columns critical of the Saudi government for The Washington Post, was killed and dismembered in a premeditated murder at the consulate.
As details about the case have emerged, U.S. lawmakers stepped up demands for responses to the murder and to the crisis in Yemen.
The International Committee for the Red Cross said Wednesday that its team in Hodeida this week found dreadful living conditions for thousands of displaced families
“who own only the clothes they wear and survive on a little rice or a thin mix of flour and water, if they find any food to eat at all.”
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