Observers Deploy in Yemen to Monitor Truce: Report


Observers Deploy in Yemen to Monitor Truce: Report

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Local cease-fire monitors have arrived at three Yemeni provinces to consolidate a UN-brokered truce, residents and officials said, ahead of peace talks scheduled to start in Kuwait next week.

Local officials said teams of 12 monitors were deployed in Ma’rib province east of the capital Sana’a, in southwestern Ta’iz province and in al-Hajjah province in the north to try to stop truce violations and allow humanitarian aid to pass through, Reuters reported.

The deployment comes amid fresh reports of violations by the Saudi regime. The monarchy’s warplanes have repeatedly bombarded a number of areas across Yemen since the truce came into force at midnight (2100 GMT) on Sunday.

The monitors would also try to resolve problems and record complaints of violations and send them to a higher committee working under United Nations supervision.

Houthi Spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam had said local committees would be deployed in six provinces where fighting had been taking place. Apart from Marib, al-Hajjah and Ta’iz, monitors would also be deployed in Shabwa, Bayda and Dhale provinces in southern and central Yemen.

Abdel-Salam, in remarks to Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper daily Wednesday, said the Houthis regard the truce “as a step toward a complete halt to the war” in Yemen.

Previous ceasefire agreements failed to end the Saudi aggression against Yemen that began in March last year after Riyadh continued to pound more civilian areas in the impoverished Arab country.

UN-sponsored peace talks are set to begin on April 18 in Kuwait.

More than 6,300 people have been killed in the year-long Saudi-led aggression, with about half of the victims being civilians, while 30,000 have been wounded, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises, alongside emergencies in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq. It says more than 21 million people in Yemen need help, or about 80 percent of the population.

Most Visited in World
Top World stories
Top Stories