A Houthi official responded to comments from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the peace process in Yemen. On Sunday, the State Department released a statement on a call between Blinken and Martin Griffiths, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen.
“He [Blinken] highlighted that the United States supports a unified, stable Yemen free from foreign influence, and that there is no military solution to the conflict,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
On Monday, Houthi official Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said on Twitter that Blinken’s calls for a Yemen free of foreign interference are “positive.” He said the US should back-up its calls by ending support for the Saudi-led coalition’s military operations and ending support for the blockade.
A recent CNN investigation found that the US-Saudi blockade on Yemen is still being enforced despite warnings from the UN that 400,000 Yemeni children will starve to death this year if conditions do not change.
On Friday, Timothy Lenderking, Biden’s envoy for Yemen, blamed the Houthis for the failure to reach a ceasefire and downplayed the effects of the blockade. The Houthis initially appeared to reject a new ceasefire proposal from the US, but on Saturday, a spokesman for the group clarified that they were not dismissing the proposal and said talks are still ongoing.