HODEIDAH: Representatives from Yemen’s government and Houthi militants tasked with pulling forces out of the key port city of Hodeidah met Sunday for the first time in five months.
The redeployment from Hodeidah is a critical part of a cease-fire deal reached in December in Sweden that calls on the government and the Houthis to move forces away from ports and parts of city.
“The joint meeting of the redeployment coordination (committee) meeting started earlier this afternoon,” a UN official present at the meeting told AFP, adding it was set to continue Monday.
The last meeting was held on Feb. 16 and 17, the source added.
The UN head of the committee confirmed the meeting “aboard a UN vessel on the high seas,” adding it would center on “steps to implement” the Hodeidah pullback plan.
Led by Danish General Michael Lollesgaard, the committee established under the Sweden agreement includes representatives from the United Nations, the Yemen government and Houthi rebels.
The pullback was supposed to have taken place two weeks after the cease-fire went into force on Dec. 18, but that deadline was missed.
In May, the UN announced the militants had withdrawn from Hodeidah and two other nearby ports, the first practical step on the ground since the cease-fire deal.
But the government accused the militia of faking the pullout, saying it had merely handed control to its allies.
Lollesgaard confirmed in June there had been no Houthi military presence in all three ports since their withdrawal a month before.
The UN is hoping that a de-escalation in Hodeidah will allow desperately-needed food and medical aid to reach millions in need in Yemen.
The Red Sea port is the entry point for the bulk of imported goods and relief aid to Yemen, which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The Yemen conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since Houthi militants seized the capital in 2014 from the internationally recognized government.
Yemen sides meet to discuss Hodeidah on a ship
Yemen sides meet to discuss Hodeidah on a ship
- A redeployment of forces from Hodeidah is a critical part of a cease-fire deal reached in December in Sweden
- Meeting between government officials and militants was the first in five months
Saad Hariri pledges to contest May election
- Beirut rally draws large crowds on anniversary of his father’s assassination
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Saturday that his movement, which represents the majority of Lebanon’s Sunni community, would take part in upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
The Future Movement had suspended its political activities in 2022.
Hariri was addressing a large gathering of Future Movement supporters as Lebanon marked the 21st anniversary of the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, at Martyrs’ Square in front of his tomb.
He said his movement remained committed to the approach of “moderation.”
A minute’s silence was observed by the crowd in Martyrs’ Square at the exact time when, in 2005, a suicide truck carrying about 1,000 kg of explosives detonated along Beirut’s seaside road as Rafik Hariri’s motorcade passed, killing him along with 21 others, including members of his security guards and civilians, and injuring 200 people.
Four members of Hezbollah were accused of carrying out the assassination and were tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The crowd waved Lebanese flags and banners of the Future Movement as they awaited Saad Hariri, who had returned to Beirut from the UAE, where he resides, specifically to commemorate the anniversary, as has been an annual tradition.
Hariri said that “after 21 years, the supporters of Hariri’s approach are still many,” denouncing the “rumors and intimidation” directed at him.
He added: “Moderation is not hesitation … and patience is not weakness. Rafik Hariri’s project is not a dream that will fade. He was the model of a statesman who believed, until martyrdom, that ‘no one is greater than their country.’ The proof is his enduring place in the minds, hearts and consciences of the Lebanese people.”
Hariri said he chose to withdraw from political life after “it became required that we cover up failure and compromise the state, so we said no and chose to step aside — because politics at the expense of the country’s dignity and the project of the state has no meaning.”
He said: “The Lebanese are weary, and after years of wars, divisions, alignments and armed bastions, they deserve a normal country with one constitution, one army, and one legitimate authority over weapons — because Lebanon is one and will remain one. Notions of division have collapsed in the face of reality, history and geography, and the illusions of annexation and hegemony have fallen with those who pursued them, who ultimately fled.”
Hariri said the Future Movement’s project is “One Lebanon, Lebanon first — a Lebanon that will neither slide back into sectarian strife or internal fighting, nor be allowed to do so.”
He added that the Taif Agreement is “the solution and must be implemented in full,” arguing that “political factions have treated it selectively by demanding only what suits them — leaving the agreement unfulfilled and the country’s crises unresolved.”
He said: “When we call for the full implementation of the Taif Agreement, we mean: weapons exclusively in the hands of the state, administrative decentralization, the abolition of political sectarianism, the establishment of a senate and full implementation of the truce agreement. All of this must be implemented — fully and immediately — so we can overcome our chronic problems and crises together.
“Harirism will continue to support any Arab rapprochement, and reject any Arab discord. Those who seek to sow discord between the Gulf and Arab countries will harm only themselves and their reputation.
“We want to maintain the best possible relations with all Arab countries, starting with our closest neighbor, Syria — the new Syria, the free Syria that has rid itself of the criminal and tyrannical regime that devastated it and Lebanon, and spread its poison in the Arab world.”
Hariri said he saluted “the efforts of unification, stabilization and reconstruction led by Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.”
When asked about the Future Movement’s participation in parliamentary elections following his withdrawal from politics, he said: “Tell me when parliamentary elections will be held, and I will tell you what the Future Movement will do. I promise you that, when the elections take place, they will hear our voices, and they will count our votes.”
The US Embassy in Lebanon shared a post announcing that Ambassador Michel Issa laid a wreath at the grave of Rafik Hariri.
Hariri’s legacy “to forge peace and prosperity continues to resonate years later with renewed significance,” the embassy said.
