Sanaa tightens its conditions: implementing the terms of the armistice before expanding it
Despite US efforts to revive the Yemeni truce and put it back on track, Sanaa’s position is no longer as flexible as before, due to the breach by the United Nations – the sponsor of the ceasefire – of its commitments.
Instead of moving to steps to build confidence between the opposing parties, the discussions and demands were returned to point zero, while the issue of seizing fuel ships was again used as a way to waste more time without implementing the terms of the armistice.
Observers considered that the release of eight ships seized by the Saudi-Emirati coalition, early last month, did not return the truce to the path of safety, and did not encourage Sanaa to deal flexibly with any new international or regional efforts. In this context, the head of the Sanaa negotiating delegation, Mohammed Abdulsalam, who has been in the Iranian capital, Tehran since the end of last week, reiterated that the correct implementation of the terms of the truce is “to stop the aggression, lift the siege, and pay the salaries of state employees.” These demands are consistent with what Sanaa stresses that the last extension of the truce was and still – with the rest of the time – “represents a last and unrepeatable opportunity”, bearing in mind that the other parties deliberately circumvented the contents of the last extension, and did not show any intention to implement most of the term agreed upon.
Sources close to the Ansar Allah movement told Al-Akhbar that Sana’a’s position has become more hardened following “the aggression deliberately seizing fuel ships without justification, with the aim of draining time and causing a halt in the implementation of other provisions related to opening new travel destinations, facilitating the entry of fuel ships, and negotiating the mechanism for disbursing the salaries of state employees. Also, the statements issued by the United States, France and Britain, recently, supported the mechanism that the government of the other party tried to impose under Saudi directives, which resulted in the seizure of ships. But this resulted in the hardening of the position of Sana’a, especially since Washington, London and Paris welcomed the release of the ships, which represented a clear bias of these capitals toward the “Coalition”. The sources pointed out that the acquittal of the US State Department, its envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, and US Ambassador Stephen Fagin, to the countries of aggression of the crime of detaining ships “confirms their partnership in this international crime.”
Meanwhile, a source in the “Higher Economic Committee” in Sana’a told Al-Akhbar that “the US side’s approval of the mechanism of obstructing the entry of ships was a scandalous matter, revealing that the so-called technical office of the Economic Council in the pro-coalition government was behind the imposition of a mechanism.
“The mechanism that the other party tried to implement to impose new restrictions on the import of oil derivatives to the port of Hodeidah dates back to the middle of this year, and the company in Aden that tried to impose this mechanism is owned by the Saudi ambassador and his partners in the Aden government,” the source added.
The US State Department urged the Yemeni parties to take the necessary steps to extend and expand the armistice
These measures were rejected by the Syndicate of Oil Derivatives Traders and Importers in Sana’a, in a statement in which it considered that the attempt to compel importers to deal with exporting or examining companies was “unjustified”, in light of the existence of a UN inspection mechanism through which all shipment documents required by inspection standards are submitted.
This inspection mechanism is carried out in Djibouti by the United Nations Verification and Inspection Committee, UNFM. While two ships are still being held on the coast of Jizan, the Minister of Oil and Minerals in the Sanaa government, Ahmed Daris, warned a few days ago against continuing to fight the Yemenis with fuel, calling for their speedy release, and not to prevent their entry again. The coalition of aggression deliberately missed opportunities to evade the implementation of the terms of the armistice, in order to further increase the suffering of the people.
In light of these complications, American “diplomatic” efforts have returned to the fore, while the talk of the United States envoy to Yemen, who returned to launch his regional tour from the Emirates, at the end of last week, seemed different from reality, after the armistice set back and most of its provisions foiled, and the talk became about reviving and saving it. Lenderking, during his tour, which will also include Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman, is carrying a new offer, which Yemeni diplomatic sources told Al-Akhbar, “that he did not bring anything new, except for the deportation of the implementation of many conditions, and the postponement of talking about the salary payment mechanism and the opening of Taiz roads, until after moving on to the armistice expansion process.”
It should be noted that the US State Department said, via Twitter, that Linderking’s new round “comes to urge the parties to intensify the United Nations-led negotiations in the next three weeks, and to take the necessary steps to extend the armistice, leading to increased tangible benefits for all parties.”