Yemeni Forces Halt Retaliatory Attacks on Aggressors at UN Request

TEHRAN (defapress) – Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Movement said on Monday it was halting drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, responding to a demand from the United Nations.

News ID: 73806

Date: 19 November 2018 - 11:13

"After our contacts with the UN envoy and his request to stop drone and missile strikes...We announce our initiative...to halt missile and drone strikes on the countries of aggression," said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthis' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Reuters reported.

The group said it was ready for a broader ceasefire if "the Saudi-led coalition wants peace."

“(The decision) came to support the UN envoy, to show good faith and support the peace efforts," the statement said.

UN special envoy Martin Griffiths is trying to salvage peace talks after a round in September collapsed. He hopes to convene talks before the end of the year in Sweden to agree on a framework for peace under a transitional government.

Yemen’s parties have given “firm assurances” they are committed to attending peace talks to be convened shortly, Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Friday, and pledged to escort the Houthi delegation from Sana’a if needed.

Last time, Griffith invited the two sides to pick up where they had left in Geneva. The Saudis, however, refused to give permission to an Omani plane” to land in the Yemeni capital Sana’a to take the Houthi delegation to the negotiations.

This time, Saudi Arabia and the UAE both have said they support UN-led peace talks.

The Houthis say their missile attacks on Saudi Arabia are in retaliation for the continued massacre of civilians and destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure by the coalition led by the Riyadh regime.

Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for more than two 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 fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 15,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

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