The failure of the first negotiations to lift the siege on Taiz and open roads
English - Sunday 29 May 2022 الساعة 07:33 pm
Taiz, NewsYemen, special:
Jordan's negotiations, which brought together the Yemeni government and the Houthi militia to discuss lifting the siege on Taiz and opening the main roads, failed due to the weakness of the first, the intransigence of the second, and the inability of the United Nations, which is sponsoring these negotiations.
The declaration of failure was made by the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, who issued a statement yesterday in which he indicated the conclusion of an initial round of discussions between the two parties that lasted three days and resulted in a proposal to gradually reopen roads that would include an implementation mechanism and guarantees for the safety of civilian travelers.
The UN statement did not specify the roads that will be reopened, especially in light of the intransigence of the Houthi delegation, which appeared in the last days of the negotiations, wearing a military uniform, indicating that force is the only option to open the crossings and roads and lift the siege on Taiz.
The government’s weakness during its entry into these negotiations was embodied in the concessions it made, represented by opening Sana’a International Airport and allowing oil derivatives to enter Hodeidah without any guarantees to reopen roads and lift the siege on Taiz under the UN humanitarian armistice that began on the second of last April, with days remaining to end.
Observers believe that the government was in these negotiations in a weak position, especially since its delegation did not include representatives of the forces that swept the Houthis into the southern fronts, represented by the Giants Forces and the Southern Transitional Council.
Tawfiq Al-Sharabi, the director of the news department of the Yemeni channel affiliated with legitimacy, says, "They opened a port, revenues, airport and passports for him, and he refused to open anything other than a dirt road..!!
The government also relied on a negotiating team belonging to the besieged city of Taiz, the same team that succumbed to the intransigence of the militias in the first negotiation sessions through the statement issued by the team leader, Abdul Karim Shaiban, in which he spoke about the militias’ proposal to open an old donkey road that reaches the bottom of the city of Salh, which is a road bumpy.
The government with this team forgot that there are other main roads that need to be opened to facilitate the movement of citizens between the governorates, such as the road between the capital Aden, Taiz, Al-Dhalea, Ibb, Al-Dhalea and Dhamar, which made it confined to talking about lifting the siege on Taiz and gave an opportunity for the Houthi militia team to appear more comprehensive, which was reflected in the posts of Houthi leaders who talked about the government delegation's restriction to discussing lifting the siege on Taiz.
The intransigence of the Houthi militia began from the first moments when it announced the names of its representatives who belong to the hard-line movement that rejects peace and demands the continuation of the war.
The militia delegation was headed by Abdullah Al-Razami, the militia's military commander and responsible for the "Al-Hussein Brigades", the militia's strongest combat division, and directly affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
According to information received from the negotiating room, the militias refused to discuss any ideas or proposals submitted by the government delegation regarding the roads to be opened, and insisted on developing proposals for narrow roads and crossings that are under their fire control.
The militias reinforced their intransigent position by the appearance of their members in the last days of the negotiations wearing military uniforms for the Yemeni army, which the observers considered a clear message that: "Either we rule you or you rule us, and the field is the only solution."
Journalist Majid al-Daari says, "The Houthi negotiating delegation in Jordan wears its military uniform to deliver a veiled message of escalation to the world that they are men of war and came from the fronts to set their conditions on military issues and not just discuss understandings to open humanitarian crossings in Taiz!"
He asked, "Did the legitimacy and the United Nations understand who is really behind the attempt to thwart the truce and confuse humanitarian issues with military matters to keep the war going and thwart any peace efforts and national consensus in Yemen?"
As for the inability of the United Nations through its envoy to Yemen, it appeared through its inability to pressure the Houthi militias to discuss the proposals and perceptions of the government delegation at least, similar to its pressure on the Presidential Leadership Council to open Sanaa International Airport and approve travel documents issued by the Houthi terrorist militia areas.
The international impotence is not new, as it was the master of the situation during the implementation of the terms of the Sweden agreement and the humanitarian armistice, which is about to expire.
Political analysts believe that this inability is an international excuse to cover up its indirect support for the Houthi militias in order to continue the war... taking advantage of the continuous response from the legitimate government and the Arab coalition wishing to stop the war and establish peace.
The inability of the United Nations was embodied in the statement issued by the office of the United Nations envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, which refused to acknowledge the failure of the negotiations and to reveal the obstructing party, and contented itself with providing loose details of what he called the end of the initial round of negotiations.
Grundberg's statement did not include any understandable details and said that there is a proposal to gradually reopen the roads, which gives the militias the right not to implement what the negotiations came out of as a proposal and not a binding agreement.
The UN envoy tried to show these failed negotiations as a new breakthrough in the political situation, but observers of local affairs see it as a new failure in addition to the UN failure to achieve any pressure on the Houthi militias in order to achieve peace.
