Yemen’s Ansarullah Halt Op in Red Sea

Local Editor

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has unilaterally suspended its retaliatory attacks in the Red Sea, from where Saudi-led warships have been targeting the war-torn state, especially its strategic port city of Hodeidah.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Supreme Revolutionary Committee [SRC] said the two-week suspension was meant to support efforts aimed at resolving the Yemeni conflict.

“The unilateral halt in naval military operations will be for a limited time period and could be extended and include all fronts if this move is reciprocated by the leadership of the [Saudi-led] coalition,” SRC head Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said.

The announcement comes less than a week after Saudi Arabia temporarily suspended all oil shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

Riyadh’s move followed Yemeni retaliatory attacks on the Saudi Dammam frigate off the western coast of Yemen and a coalition boat off the coast of el-Durayhmi in southern Hodeidah, which the Saudi-led coalition and their allied militants have been seeking to seize in a weeks-long military push.

Elsewhere in his statement, Ansarullah complained that as a result of the Saudi-led aggression and siege of Yemen, people are suffering from the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

The halt to retaliatory attacks in the Red Sea is aimed at “preserving the Yemeni bloods and in response to the regional and international moves and efforts aiming to bring peace,” he noted.

Additionally on Tuesday, a Yemeni Defense Ministry official confirmed that the Houthis were halting naval operations for two weeks, starting at midnight on August 1.

“We welcome any initiative to spare bloodshed and stop aggression against Yemen,” the official said in a statement carried by Yemen’s official SABA news agency.

Over the past weeks, the UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths has been shuttling between the warring parties to help stop the Saudi-led offensive on Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which the world body says could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team