{"id":24521,"date":"2018-12-06T11:22:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T11:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24521"},"modified":"2018-12-06T11:22:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T11:22:34","slug":"erdogan-says-turkey-will-hold-kanal-istanbul-tender-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24521","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan says Turkey will hold Kanal Istanbul tender next year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nRIMBO: A top Houthi militia official threatened on Thursday to bar UN planes from using the Yemeni capital’s airport,\u00a0less than two hours before UN-brokered peace talks were due to open in Sweden
“If the Yemeni capital’s airport is not opened to the Yemeni people in the peace talks in Sweden, I call on the (Houthi) political council and government to close the airport for all planes,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweeted.<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, the Yemeni government demanded that the Houthis withdraw from the port city of Hodeidah.
Yemen’s foreign ministry demanded the “coupist militias withdraw fully from the western coast and hand the area over to the legitimate government” via Twitter – a reference to Houthi-held Hodeidah.<\/p>\n

\nPeace talks between Yemeni government representatives and a Houthi delegation were expected to begin on Thursday, the UN announced.
\u201cThe (UN special envoy) would like to announce the restart of the intra-Yemeni political process in Sweden on 6 December 2018,\u201d UN envoy Martin Griffiths\u2019 office tweeted.<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe SE would like to announce the restart of the intra-Yemeni political process in Sweden on 6 December 2018 #Yemen<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 OSE_Yemen (@OSE_Yemen) December 5, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nA 12-member government delegation, led by Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Yamani, arrived in Stockholm Wednesday evening, one day after a Houthi delegation flew in from Sanaa \u2014 accompanied by the UN envoy.<\/p>\n

\nThe talks mark the first meeting between Yemen\u2019s legitimate government and Houthi militants, backed by Iran, since 2016, when 106 days of negotiations yielded no breakthrough in a war that has pushed 14 million people to the brink of famine.<\/p>\n

\nThe Sweden meeting follows two major confidence-boosting gestures between the warring parties \u2014 a prisoner swap deal and the evacuation of 50 wounded insurgents from the Houthi-held capital for treatment in neutral Oman.<\/p>\n

\nThe government delegation was carrying the \u201chopes of the Yemeni people to achieve sustainable peace,\u201d said Abdullah Al-Alimi, the head of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\nThe delegation had delayed its departure until the Houthis had arrived in Stockholm after they failed to show up for the last UN bid to convene peace talks in September, sources close to the government told AFP.<\/p>\n

\nThe Houthis flew into Stockholm on a Kuwaiti plane from Sanaa on Tuesday, accompanied by UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who had promised to travel with them to allay their concerns.\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

\nOn Wednesday, a half-dozen members of the Houthi delegation could be seen on the grounds of the venue for the talks, the Johannesbergs Castle \u2014 a large estate with a golf course in the countryside 20 km northeast of Stockholm\u2019s Arlanda Airport.<\/p>\n

\nBundled up against the wintry cold, Houthi delegates could be seen chatting and walking on the grounds, which were cordoned off by police.<\/p>\n

\nThe arrival of\u00a0the Houthis followed two major confidence-boosting gestures \u2014 a prisoner swap deal and the evacuation of 50 wounded insurgents from the Houthi-held capital for treatment in neutral Oman.<\/p>\n

\nThe US State Department hailed the peace talks in Sweden as a \u201cnecessary and vital first step\u201d and called on all parties to \u201ccease any ongoing hostilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe United Arab Emirates, another key backer of the Yemeni government, said the planned talks offered a \u201ccritical opportunity\u201d to bring peace to the country.<\/p>\n

\nNo date has been announced for the start of the negotiations, but Yemeni government sources said they could begin on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nThe head of the 12-member Houthi delegation, Mohammed Abdelsalam, said it would \u201cspare no effort to make a success of the talks to restore peace and end the aggression.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAt the same time, he called on Houthi insurgents to remain \u201cvigilant against any attempt at a military escalation on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe announcement of a deal on Tuesday to swap hundreds of detainees was hailed by the International Committee of the Red Cross as \u201cone step in the right direction toward the building of mutual trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe ICRC will oversee the exchange after the first round of talks in Sweden.<\/p>\n

\nThe agreement, struck by the UN envoy in weeks of shuttle diplomacy, came after the wounded Houthis were flown out for treatment on Monday, meeting a key Houthi precondition for joining the talks.<\/p>\n

\nYemeni government official Hadi Haig said between 1,500 and 2,000 pro-government personnel and between 1,000 and 1,500 Houthis would be released.<\/p>\n

\nOn the government side, they include former Defense Minister Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, who has been held by the Houthis since they overran the capital in late 2014, and President Hadi\u2019s brother Nasser, a general and former senior intelligence official.<\/p>\n

\nThe Norwegian Refugee Council on Wednesday called for the two sides to put a halt to the fighting.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cYemen needs an immediate cease-fire and concrete steps to restore public services,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cParties to the conflict must agree ways to reopen all ports and stabilize the nation\u2019s collapsing economy while facilitating full and unfettered access for people in need of humanitarian aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the World Health Organization, triggering what the UN calls the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

\nRights groups estimate the toll could be up to five times as high.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RIMBO: A top Houthi militia official threatened on Thursday to bar UN planes from using the Yemeni capital’s airport,\u00a0less than two hours before UN-brokered peace talks were due to open in Sweden”If the Yemeni capital’s airport is not opened to the Yemeni people in the peace talks in Sweden, I call on the (Houthi) political…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}