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UN Yemen envoy to visit battleground Hodeida city: source
SANAA, Nov 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The United Nations envoy will visit
Yemen’s embattled city of Hodeida this week, a UN source said Thursday, ahead
of peace talks set for December in Sweden.
Martin Griffiths, who arrived in the rebel-held capital Sanaa on
Wednesday, was in the country to lay the groundwork for the upcoming
negotiations aimed at ending almost four years of devastating conflict.
The British diplomat is expected to visit the lifeline port city of Hodeida
on Friday, a UN source told AFP.
The purpose of Griffiths’s visit was to encourage the Iran-aligned Huthi
rebels and government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition to remain calm
ahead of the talks in Stockholm, the source said.
Both sides have in the past week expressed support for the envoy and his
mission to hold discussions, but military officials have said intermittent
clashes continued to erupt in the Red Sea city of Hodeida.
Mohammed Ali al-Huthi, head of the Huthi rebels’ Higher Revolutionary
Committee and an influential political figure, tweeted Thursday that he
“hopes there is no escalation in military operations by the coalition
following Griffiths’s visit to Hodeida”.
UN agencies say up to 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation if
fighting closes the port of Hodeida, from which nearly all imports and
humanitarian aid pass.
BSS/AFP/RY/150 hrs