Yemen’s Houthi Leader Says Not Opposed to UN Supervision in Hudaydah

TEHRAN (Defapress) – “We told the UN envoy, Martin Griffiths, that we are not rejecting the role of supervision and logistics that the UN wants to hold in the port, but on the condition that the aggression against Hudaydah stops," Houthi said in an interview with Le Figaro published online late on Tuesday.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, Emirati forces and militants loyal to Yemen’s fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, launched the Hudaydah offensive on June 13 despite international warnings that it would compound the impoverished nation’s humanitarian crisis.

Griffiths has reportedly been pushing for a deal in which the Houthis place the Hudaydha port under the supervision of a UN-monitored committee.

The UAE, however, dismisses such an arrangement, under which Hudaydah would remain under the control of the Houthis and their allied forces, demanding their unconditional withdrawal.

“It is strange to demand that the Yemenis pull out of their city of Hudaydah for handing it over to the United Arab Emirates, which is committing an act of aggression against us,” the Houthi leader said, adding, “Such a demand violates international conventions.”

“It is as if the United Kingdom called on the French to abandon Paris or another city and give it up to the British; It is not logical,” he went on to say.

Houthi further slammed France for “contributing to Arab-led aggression” in Yemen by selling weapons to the aggressors.

“In Yemen, France should support peace, not war,” he added. “Many Western countries consider wars in the light of their economic interests, to the detriment of human rights.”

Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the Saudi-led coalition for more than three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

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