{"id":33346,"date":"2019-02-26T22:24:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T22:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33346"},"modified":"2019-02-26T22:24:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T22:24:16","slug":"airstrikes-up-sharply-in-anti-assad-bastion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33346","title":{"rendered":"Airstrikes up sharply in anti-Assad bastion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nDUBAI:\u00a0The Houthi militia\u2019s occupation of parts of Yemen has increased people\u2019s suffering, which has been falsely blamed on a \u201cSaudi blockade,\u201d said the British ambassador to Yemen.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt\u2019s no coincidence that the number of people in need of aid, now at a staggering 24 million, has increased enormously since the Houthis took over parts of the country,\u201d Michael Aron told Arab News in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n

\nThe British diplomat, who was appointed ambassador to Yemen in February 2018, said the UK supports the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who \u201cwas forced to flee Sanaa following a rebel insurgency that took the capital by force (in September 2014) and overthrew the legitimate government. This is a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Iranian-backed Houthis took over the presidential palace, where Hadi and his ministers remained under house arrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHe managed to return to his hometown of Aden. In response, Houthi forces advanced toward Aden, causing Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia, which led an air campaign to defeat the Houthis.<\/p>\n

\nAlmost four years of fighting and five attempts at peace talks later, there is no end to the war in sight. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere can be no military solution to this war. The longer the conflict continues, the more the people of Yemen will suffer as the humanitarian crisis worsens,\u201d Aron said.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), 60,000 people have been killed since 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nBritish charity Save the Children estimates that 85,000 children under the age of 5 have starved to death since 2015.<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, a devaluation of Yemen\u2019s currency and food shortages have led to famine in parts of the country.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe worsening economy has devastated people\u2019s purchasing power. In many cases, there\u2019s food and fuel, but people can\u2019t afford to buy it,\u201d Aron said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMany people believe that there\u2019s a \u2018Saudi blockade\u2019 attempting to starve the northwest of the country in order to defeat the Houthis. This is simply not true \u2026 The reality is that there\u2019s no blockade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe UK and the UN monitor food and fuel going into Hodeidah and other Yemeni ports, in an agreed process for the inspection of ships, the ambassador said.<\/p>\n

\nThe UN had been prevented from entering the Red Sea Mills, which has enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month, in Hodeidah since September 2018. Officials finally gained access on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\nA humanitarian corridor was meant to be opened in Hodeidah last month as part of the deal that was signed in December in Stockholm by the Houthis and the Yemeni government, but the UN said the militia has failed to honor the agreement. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHowever, Aron said the talks were a success. \u201cMany believed they wouldn\u2019t happen or we\u2019d be in the same situation we were in Geneva, when the Houthis didn\u2019t arrive,\u201d he added, referring to when the Iranian-backed militia refused to attend peace talks in Switzerland in September 2018.<\/p>\n

\nAlthough slow, progress has been made, and there has been a significant reduction in military activity, specifically in Hodeidah, as well as regular meetings between the warring sides, which was not the case previously, Aron said.<\/p>\n

\nLast month, delegations from both sides met in Jordan to discuss prisoner swaps. As a result, Saudi Arabia released seven prisoners the day after a Saudi prisoner was freed by the Houthis.<\/p>\n

\nLast week, the warring parties agreed to start withdrawing forces from the main port of Hodeidah.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThis came after Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, who had been heading the UN operation monitoring a cease-fire in Hodeidah, was replaced by Lt. Gen. Michael Lollesgaard due to a disagreement with the Houthis.<\/p>\n

\nAron said the international community will react strongly if the Houthis put the peace process at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe next round of talks will take place when \u201csufficient progress has been made\u201d on the Stockholm agreement, he added.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI hope and believe we\u2019re much closer to the end than the beginning of this war,\u201d he said, although adding that there is still a long way to go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DUBAI:\u00a0The Houthi militia\u2019s occupation of parts of Yemen has increased people\u2019s suffering, which has been falsely blamed on a \u201cSaudi blockade,\u201d said the British ambassador to Yemen. \u201cIt\u2019s no coincidence that the number of people in need of aid, now at a staggering 24 million, has increased enormously since the Houthis took over parts of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33346","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\/33346","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=33346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}