LONDON: A ceasefire agreement has been reached with respect to the city of Hodeidah and its port, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres announced Thursday at a press conference at the end of peace talks on Yemen.
Guterres added that the agreement between Yemen’s warring parties included the deployment of neutral forces and the establishment of humanitarian corridors. A political framework will be discussed in a next round of meetings scheduled for January.
He added that consensus has been reached regarding aid delivery to Taiz.
The Saudi ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber said that the agreement includes a Houthi withdrawal from Taiz and the release of thousands of detainees.
Mohammed Al-Jaber said the agreements, which have not been released to the public in full after talks in Sweden, required the Houthis “withdrawing from the city and port of Hodeidah, as well as Taiz, and the release of thousands of detainees and prisoners.”
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash welcomed the agreement between Yemen’s warring parties to a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Thursday.
“Encouraging news today from Sweden. Important political progress made including the status of Hodeidah. The Coalition & Yemeni forces’ military pressure enabled this significant breakthrough,” Gargash said in a tweet.
Encouraging news today from Sweden. Important political progress made including the status of Hodeida. The Coalition & Yemeni forces military pressure enabled this significant breakthrough.
— د. أنور قرقاش (@AnwarGargash) December 13, 2018
Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Yamani and Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdelsalam shook hands to loud applause at the close of UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and special envoy Martin Griffiths looked on smiling.
UN chief Antonio Guterres led his mediators on Thursday in a last-minute push for a truce in Yemen’s war as the Houthis and the government wrangled over Hodeidah port and Sanaa airport.
The warring parties have been in the rural Swedish village of Rimbofor UN-brokered talks, now in their seventh day, working for an agreement on key issues including a cessation.
Earlier, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the outcome of Yemen’s peace consultations will be conveyed to the UN Security Council on Friday.
The consultations, which started last week near Stockholm, took place in “positive spirit and good faith,” she said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
