Comments from British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who warned that the
peace process in Yemen’s Hodeidah could quickly collapse and insinuated
that the Shi’ite Houthis weren’t meeting their commitments, sparked an
angry reaction.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam accused Hunt of misrepresenting what was agreed to in Sweden
back in December, saying that Hunt’s claim Hodeidah would be under
neutral control was inaccurate. The deal, actually, called for it to be
under the control of locals with UN observers.
Abdul-Salam also pointed out that the British government has been siding
with Saudi Arabia on the war in Yemen against the Houthis, suggesting
Hunt would not be an impartial judge of who is meeting obligations.
From an objective viewpoint it’s not clear either side has met its
obligations on withdrawing from Hodeidah, which is why the UN brokered
an additional round of talks recently to try to get the process
restarted. This made some progress, but everything is still slow-going,
and likely more talks will be called for.
Translation: The Houthi were supposed to commit themselves to being rubes, leaving Hodeidah so the Saudi coalition could sneak in unopposed or be caught off-guard and losing Hodeidah in a Saudi coalition ‘surprise’ attack.