The Yemeni government is open to all ideas, including the United Nations managing the strategic port city of Al Hudaydah, a member of the government delegation to the UN-backed talks in Geneva told Sputnik on Friday.
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2018) The Yemeni government is open to all ideas, including the United Nations managing the strategic port city of Al Hudaydah, a member of the government delegation to the UN-backed talks in Geneva told Sputnik on Friday.
The government and rebels are fighting for control over the port, which has gained particular importance in the civil conflict in Yemen, as it accepts some 80 percent of all aid and commercial deliveries to the crisis-torn country.
"We as the government are open to all ideas," Hamza Alkamaly, who also serves as Yemeni deputy minister of sport, said, when asked if the government would be open to the UN managing the port.
The Yemeni government believes that the liberation of the port, which serves as "the main financial gate through which Houthis can get money and continue fighting," would help end the internal conflict in the country, Alkamaly stressed.
Both the Yemeni government led by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, also known as Ansar Allah, have initially confirmed that they would take part in the UN-backed consultations in Geneva.
However, the Houthi delegation said on Wednesday they could not leave the city of Sanaa as they did not have the safe passage guarantee from the Saudi-led coalition, controlling the Yemeni airspace. At the same time, the coalition said the permission had been given.
