PHOTO: DW
DECEMBER 8th 2018
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
Yemen Peace Talks Under Way, Demands for a Neutral Zone
With the peace talks between Yemen’s two warring sides successfully under way, there is high hopes that an end can soon be put to the armed conflict between the Houthi rebels and the military forces. Already, a few demands have been made – one especially by the Houthi negotiator on Saturday, requesting that Yemen’s main port city be declared a “neutral zone” and further adding that the United Nations could play a role in Sanaa airport.
Yemen’s capital; Sanaa, and the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, are both among the control of the Houthi rebels, primarily through the many population centres. It has since become a hard focus of the war, with the coalition having launched a campaign to capture the port this year. With Hodeidah being an entry point for most of Yemen’s commercial goods and vital aid, special envoy Martin Griffiths is invested in trying to prevent a full-scale assault.
In Rimbo, on the sidelines of peace talks with the Saudi-backed government, Houthi negotiator, Mohammed Abdusalam told Reuters that “It (Hodeidah) should be a neutral zone apart from the conflict, and the military brigades that came from outside Hodeidah province should leave.”
The idea behind the neutral zone would be to create a stepping stone, that may lead to more frequent ceasefires, more future meetings and understandings, and hopefully at the end of the conflict: peace between the two powers. The talks themselves could be considered a stepping stone, being the first talks between the rebels and the military forces in 2 years, of the so far 4 year war.
“There will be no need for military presence there if battles stop ... Hodeidah is an economic hub and it should stay that way for the sake of all Yemenis” answered Abdusalam, when he’d been asked about whether or not Houthi forces would withdraw from Hodeidah if the neutral zone was agreed upon.
Though he failed to state who would be in control of the city if the Houthis leave, he further added that; “We have proposed to the United Nations to oversee the port and supervise its logistics... inspections, revenues and all the technical issues.”
On the first day of the talks, on Thursday, Griffiths had been able to negotiate a prisoner swap deal, but the numbers of prisoners to be exchange are still under much debate. The Houthi negotiator said that “The problem is with trust, (both sides) do not want to give precise numbers because each is worried that the other will hide something.”
Abdusalam went on to offer that his group would not be opposed to giving the UN a role at the Sanaa airport, as an attempt to secure and agreement to reopen the facility, after it’s suffered plenty of bombings throughout the course of the war.
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
