The Houthi movement expressed its readiness to hand over Al-Hudaydah Port to the United Nations’ control if the Saudi-led coalition stopped its attack on the city. The leader of the movement, Abdel Malek Al-Houthi, said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, “We told the UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffith, that we do not refuse the UN logistics role and supervision on the port, in condition of stopping the aggression on the city.”
Al-Hudaydah Port lies 230 km away from the capital Sanaa and is controlled by the Houthi movement. The port receives 80% of the basic commodities that the country receives.
More than one month ago, troops of the Saudi-led Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen launched a massive military operation on Al-Hudaydah in western Yemen, aiming at defeating the Houthi movement, which controls the strategic city and port.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia announced forming the Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen following the Iran-backed Ansar Allah group (Houthi) seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September 2014.
Besides Saudi Arabia, the coalition includes the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Djibouti, Sudan, Senegal, Kuwait, Morocco, Malaysia, and Egypt, as well as the internationally recognised government of Yemen.
Al-Houthi added during the interview that many western countries see the conflict in Yemen in light of its economic interests at the expense of the human rights.
Since the beginning of the war in Yemen, more than 100,000 civilians have been killed, while another hundreds of thousands have been wounded. More than 22 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance or protection, about 8.4 million of whom are severely food insecure and at risk of starvation.
