Yemen's Houthi rebels do not seek peace and their military activity merely aims to take control of the country's oil-rich provinces, Hamzah Alkamaly, the Yemeni deputy minister for youth and sports, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2020) Yemen's Houthi rebels do not seek peace and their military activity merely aims to take control of the country's oil-rich provinces, Hamzah Alkamaly, the Yemeni deputy minister for youth and sports, told Sputnik.
"It is clear that Houthis are not tolerating peace. They do not want peace, they are escalating all over southern border of Saudi Arabia ... The problem with the Houthis is that they think they can control the crude oil areas... and they keep escalating in multiple cities," Alkamaly, who took part in the 2018 Stockholm talks that saw opposing parties signing an UN-sponsored accord to ease tensions in Yemen, said.
The deputy minister also recalled that three months ago the Saudi-led Arab coalition presented a peace plan which envisioned a ceasefire and sent a special mission to monitor the truce, but the Houthis "didn't react well" to it despite the government's and coalition's readiness for talks.
Alkamaly added that the rebels instead chose the path of increasing violence, targeting civilians with a ballistic missiles. In one such incident in late May, at least a dozen people in the western Marib province.
Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces, led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi rebels for several years now. The Arab coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
