With the deployment of int’l monitoring points, Houthis manipulate the Swedish agreement

Ali Ragab

In a new development in the implementation of the Swedish agreement, the UN Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) in western Yemen’s Hodeidah has set up the first point for monitoring the ceasefire in the city, following the agreement signed in December 2018 between Yemen’s legitimate government and the Houthi militia, amid continuing violations, which observers say means the Houthis have turned against the agreement.

The RCC began on Saturday, October 19 by deploying four checkpoints on the front lines in the city of Hodeidah until next Wednesday in order to reduce the escalation between the two sides in accordance with the mechanism of the ceasefire agreement reached last year under the auspices of Sweden.

The deployment and installation of front-line checkpoints in Hodeidah was supervised by Indian Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha, head of the United Nations Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA).

The media office of the joint Yemeni forces confirmed Guha’s return after Houthi gunmen restricted the movement of the UN team in Hodeidah and prevented it from moving to the meeting point.

The UN’s attempt to install new points comes as the pro-Iranian Houthi militias continue to violate the UN truce in Hodeidah. On Saturday evening, October 19, heavy artillery was fired at joint forces in Hays district, southern Hodeidah governorate.

According to military sources in Hays, the militia renewed shelling of joint forces positions north and east of the district, using mortars and artillery.

The joint forces said that on Sunday, October 20, the Houthis committed 31 violations and assaults in nearby areas, including five violations and attacks in the city of Hodeidah, four in the district of Duraimi, twelve in the Al-Jah area of Husayniyah disctrict, five in the areas of al-Fazah and al-Jabaliya in the district of al-Tahita, and five violations and attacks in Hays.

The Houthis used all kinds of heavy and medium weapons to violate the agreement, the joint forces said, adding that the militia attacked citizens in their homes, markets, farms and roads.

For his part, Yemeni political analyst Abdul Karim al-Medi said that the process of deploying UN monitoring points in Hodeidah, whether successful or not, is only a goal for the militia to buy time.

The Houthis did not implement the terms of the Swedish agreement, he said, adding that the Houthis’ surrender of Hodeidah’s ports was really just a handover between the militia and its elements. Today, in light of the militia’s checkpoints and obstacles, it is a bailout of what remains of the Swedish agreement.

The Houthi militia knows only the language of force, Medi pointed out, asking how UN observation posts can be deployed in Hodeidah with the Houthi militia committing some 11,500 violations there, resulting in 300 deaths and more than 2,500 wounded.

He added that these crimes have occurred since the signing of the Swedish agreement, which was born dead, serving only the Houthi militia and the Brotherhood-affiliated Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) in dividing Yemen into areas of influence among them.

Medi praised the call of Brigadier General Tareq Saleh, commander of the Yemeni forces on the west coast, to liberate Hodeidah and Taiz from the clutches of the Houthis and the Brotherhood, stressing that there is no solution in Yemen except for the liberation of Hodeidah and Taiz from the terrorist militia.