RNA - “The United Nations failed to obtain the necessary permit. The Saudi-led coalition claimed as usual that we had set out conditions. The alliance even went to the extent to exaggerate that the wounded fighters we were planning to take with us for treatment in Europe were of Iranian and Lebanese origins. Such allegations were made out of political bankruptcy,” Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network cited Mohammed Abdul-Salam as writing on his official Twitter page on Sunday.
The Houthi official was referring to collapse of the latest round of the UN-brokered peace talks, which were to be held in the Swiss city of Geneva. The talks were aborted after the United Nations failed to meet conditions set by Yemen’s Houthis, including transfer of wounded people to hospital for proper treatment and guarantees on the safety of Houthi delegation.
Ansarullah later accused the Saudis of planning to strand the delegation in Djibouti, where their plane was to make a stop en route to Geneva.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Houthi spokesman added, “The United Nations initially informed us that we would be allowed to fly directly from Sana'a to Geneva. We even reached an agreement to take patients and a number of injured people in critical condition with us, because the airport has been closed for more than two years.”
Abdul-Salam stressed that it is within the inalienable rights of patients in critical condition to receive medical attention, especially "as we were going to talk about the sufferings of our people and the United Nations and relevant bodies were aware of the travel of wounded people and patients to Europe."
“No party, even some ambassadors of the Security Council permanent members, gave us a firm assurance regarding the safety of our delegation. How could we trust a coalition that is at war with us when the international community has no trust in it?” the senior Yemeni official pointed out.
According to Press TV, Abdul-Salam said, “Once the United Nations did not agree to the travel of our delegation on board a chartered flight, we realized that the world body cannot do anything to protect flights against the Saudi regime's disregard for international law and regulations.”
He concluded that the reopening of Sana’a International Airport is a humanitarian must and the Saudi-led coalition’s control over Yemeni ports of entry will not go unanswered.
Delegates from Yemen’s former government and representatives of the Houthi movement held their last UN-sponsored negotiations in Kuwait in 2016 in a bid to hammer out a “power-sharing” deal, but they fell apart after the Saudi-backed side left the venue.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crushing Ansarullah.
Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
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