Yemen’s army resumes advance in areas controlled

Four Yemeni security personnel, including a senior army officer, were killed Wednesday when Shia Houthi militants shelled army positions in the southwestern Taiz province. The shelling targeted an army outpost in Taiz’s Mawzi district, Abdullah al-Shaabi, a spokesman for forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, told Anadolu Agency.

According to al-Shaabi, Colonel Yaslam Saeed al-Yafei, a commander in the Yemeni army’s First Brigade, was killed in the artillery barrage, along with three soldiers. Taiz’s Mawzi district continues to witness sporadic clashes between the Houthis and allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the one hand, and the Yemeni army, backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, on the other.

Earlier this year, the Yemeni army managed to recapture Taiz’s Bab al-Mandab and Mucha and districts, while the Houthis remain in control of the province’s Mawzi and Dhubab districts. Yemen has remained in a state of war since 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa, forcing Hadi’s government to set up a provisional capital in the coastal city of Aden.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Hadi’s embattled pro-Saudi government. According to UN officials, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting to date, while the Red Cross has reported that over 3 million people have fled their homes as a direct result of the conflict.

On the political side, United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will commence a new round of consultations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman aimed at finding the basis for resuming negotiations between the Yemeni government and Houthi and Saleh insurgents to reach a comprehensive settlement for the crisis, diplomatic sources affirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Another Arab diplomat meanwhile revealed that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres extended the term of Ould Cheikh for six months. Ould Cheikh will start his round of talks once he returns from New York where he was participating in the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly.

Sources stressed that talks will kick off from outcomes of the national dialogue, Gulf initiative, the related UN Security Council resolutions and Arab Summits on Yemen. Talks will also tackle the suggested date to start negotiations between the crisis parties in Yemen. It has been proposed to hold the talks in October in either Kuwait or Oman, said the sources.

Ould Cheikh reiterated, as reported by Sky News Arabia, that the humanitarian situation in Yemen has become catastrophic, holding all parties are responsible for it. He added that although the crisis is humanitarian, its resolution is political.

Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al Sabah said during his speech at the General Assembly that his country has exerted relentless efforts to settle the conflict in Yemen peacefully.

Moreover, Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit met Ould Cheikh on the sidelines of the General Assembly to discuss the latter’s contacts with international, regional and Yemeni parties related to the crisis.