The chief negotiator for Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement says it will be futile to hold talks with the United Nations new special envoy for Yemen without movement on the group’s key conditions under stalled peace efforts.
Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam, who is based in Oman, tweeted this in response to Grundberg’s appointment saying airports and ports should be opened before any talks as a humanitarian necessity and priority.
The appointment of Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg on Friday as the new U.N. envoy comes as the United Nations and United States struggle to secure a breakthrough to end more than six years of war between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s recognized government.
A U.N.-led initiative for a ceasefire and the lifting of sea and air restrictions imposed by the coalition on Houthi-held areas has stalled, with the coalition seeking a simultaneous deal and the Houthis insisting on an end to the blockade first.
The conflict, widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital Sanaa, but the war has been in military stalemate for years with the group controlling most big urban centers.
The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.
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