Dubai: The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis says it is halting military operations in the country in support of UN efforts to end a five-year war that has killed over 100,000 people and spread hunger and disease.
The move aims to facilitate talks sponsored by UN special envoy Martin Griffiths for a permanent ceasefire, and was decided in part to avoid a potential outbreak of the new coronavirus, though no cases have been reported so far, military coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said.
The ceasefire will go into effect at midday on Thursday, Yemen time, for two weeks and is open to extension, he said in a statement.
The adversaries are expected to convene via video conference to discuss the proposal, which calls for halting all air, ground and naval hostilities.
The announcement is the first major breakthrough since the United Nations convened the warring parties in late 2018 in Sweden, where they signed a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
But it is unclear if the armed Houthi movement will follow suit. Spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said they had sent the United Nations a comprehensive vision that includes an end to the war and to “the blockade” imposed on Yemen.
Read the article by Aziz al-Yaakoubi and Stephen Kalin in The Sydney Morning Herald.