NEW YORK CITY: The continuing detention by the Houthis of 71 members of UN staff renders humanitarian operations in parts of Yemen controlled by the militia “untenable,” the UN said on Thursday. It came as more than 800,000 people in and around the besieged city of Taiz remained cut off from deliveries of food and other life-saving aid. Shirin Yaseen, associate spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, told Arab News that the arbitrary detentions “directly affect millions of people in need” at a time when the escalation of conflict in the region had made the work of the organization “more essential than ever.” She added: “These actions render the delivery of humanitarian aid in areas under the control of the Houthis untenable at this time. This is how we can describe it.” The UN continues to press for the release of its own personnel as well as former staff, civil society workers and employees of diplomatic missions who are also held by the Houthis, Yaseen said. She called for respect for international law, “including the privileges and immunities of the United Nations and its personnel.” Some of those being held have been in detention for years, their families left without any word of their fate. “We have cases of people who died in detention,” Yaseen added. She cautioned, however, that the act of freeing the detainees alone would not transform the humanitarian picture in Houthi-held territory. While their release would “make a huge difference” to the lives of the detainees and boost the morale of their colleagues, the core obstacles to aid remain access and the continuing fighting. “I wish that there was a simple answer to this question but it’s not, honestly, black and white,” she said. “What we need is more: we need access, we need the fighting to stop, and we need humanitarians to get into these areas and deliver to those who need it, wherever they need it.” The UN has no presence at all inside Taiz itself, Yaseen said, and so depends heavily on Yemeni aid workers operating with local and international nongovernmental organizations to get assistance to residents. “Talks and engagements continue constantly, especially regarding the situation in Taiz,” she said, and the UN was in discussions “with all parties to improve humanitarian access to families in Taiz city.” She added: “It’s critical that all parties adhere to international humanitarian law and allow humanitarians to reach those in need wherever they are.” Pressed on a Human Rights Watch assessment that the blockade of Taiz might amount to a war crime, Yaseen declined to offer a legal characterization and said: “I’m not a legal expert; I cannot brand names to different situations and contexts. “But I know what we want: We want the parties to stop fighting and the people who are in need of aid to get that aid.” The Iran-backed Houthis intensified their siege of Taiz in early October after seizing the road connecting the city with Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government. The World Food Programme estimates that about three-quarters of a population of more than 800,000 people who are now cut off in Taiz depend on humanitarian assistance. The city, the third-largest in Yemen, has been under varying degrees of Houthi siege since 2015, and the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, has warned of a looming catastrophe unless aid is allowed in. Meanwhile, detentions by the Houthis of UN personnel in Sanaa and other areas under their control have steadily expanded. The militia accuses the detainees, without providing evidence, of espionage, a charge the UN rejects. As diplomatic efforts to address the crisis continue, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, wrapped up a visit to Moscow this week, during which he held talks with the Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexander Alimov, and other senior officials on developments in Yemen and prospects for a political settlement. Grundberg stressed that coordinated regional and international support was “indispensable” in efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement that could contribute to regional stability, Yaseen said.