Army stands 10 kilometers from Yemen's Al-Hudeidah: FM

By Mohamed al-Samaei

SANAA (AA) - Yemeni government forces currently stand only 10 kilometers from Yemen’s western Al-Hudeidah province, Foreign Minister Khalid al-Yamani said Tuesday.

According to Yemen’s SABA news agency, al-Yamani made the assertion at a meeting held in Saudi capital Riyadh with Australian Ambassador to Yemen Ralph King.

“The national army is chalking up victories on a number of fronts and now stands only 10 kilometers from Al-Hudeidah,” he said.

He also stressed his desire to safeguard civilians, asserting that his government had “proven its commitment to achieving a lasting peace”.

“The government fully supports UN envoy Martin Griffith and remains open to discussing all peace proposals,” al-Yamani said.

He went on to attribute the failure of the peace process to the “intransigence” of the Houthi rebel group.

Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

The ongoing violence has devastated Yemen’s basic infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.