Saudi Arabia tables Houthi ceasefire offer
Riyadh, Mar 22 (efe-epa).- Saudi Arabia on Monday offered a ceasefire to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In a televised press conference, the Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah urged the Iran-backed Shia militia to agree to the deal, which would include the reopening of Sana’a airport.
The offer follows an uptick of tensions in the region that last week saw the Houthis bomb an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia leads the military coalition that intervened against the Houthis in 2015 after the rebel movement captured swathes of land and ousted the internationally-recognized government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi from the capital, Sana’a.
The war in Yemen has contributed to what the United Nations has termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, warning earlier this year that 80% of the country’s population required humanitarian aid.
The Saudi diplomat on Monday said the ceasefire initiative would be monitored under the auspices of the UN.
He added that the deal would involve the reopening of the international airport in Sana’a, which has been blockaded for years after the Saudi-led Arab coalition took control of Yemen’s skies.
The Saudi coalition announced a unilateral ceasefire in April 2020 for two weeks due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was later extended for the holy month of Ramadan.EFE-EPA
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