Ansarullah Not Opposed to Yemeni-Saudi Peace Talks: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat said the Houthi Ansarullah movement is not opposed to talks with Saudi Arabia in a bid to end the protracted war that has caused a human tragedy in the Arabian Peninsula country.
According to the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen TV, Mashat welcomed a delegation from the International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of conflict, and said the Houthi Ansarullah movement is ready to stop its missile and drone attacks on enemy targets if the Saudi-led coalition takes the same measures.
“The Supreme Political Council has no objection to the possibility of initiating a Yemeni-Saudi dialogue in pursuit of a comprehensive peace (deal) that the ICG delegation has suggested,” he added.
The remarks came as a Yemeni delegation headed by Mohammad Abdul-Salam has traveled to Moscow in a bid to pave the grounds for a peace deal.
In relevant remarks on Tuesday, the UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said the war in Yemen can be stopped because the warring sides still support a UN peace deal brokered in Stockholm last December.
Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for more than four 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.
Official UN figures say that more than 15,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began.
The Saudi war has impacted over seven million children in Yemen who now face a serious threat of famine, according to UNICEF figures. Over 6,000 children have either been killed or sustained serious injuries since 2015, UN children’s agency said. The humanitarian situation in the country has also been exacerbated by outbreaks of cholera, polio, and measles.
