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Yemeni officials not interested in extending UN-sponsored ceasefire
The Saudi-led coalition has violated the agreement hundreds of times since the start of the truce
By News Desk - May 25 2022
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(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

On 25 May, a prominent official of Yemen’s National Salvation Government (NSG) said they feel no obligation to extend the UN-sponsored ceasefire.

Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs Jalal al-Ruwishan remarked: “More is said than done in relation to the Yemen ceasefire. The coalition of aggression does not bother to honor the terms and conditions of the truce. The Saudi-led alliance has recurrently violated the ceasefire.”

Ruwishan said that they had reported all violations by the Saudi-led coalition to the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grandberg, but that the UN has taken no action.

According to an anonymous military source, Saudi-led coalition forces have violated the ceasefire 135 times in the past 24 hours, including six flights of Saudi warplanes over Yemen’s airspace and 40 reconnaissance flights over numerous provinces.

Although the Saudi-led coalition claims to have suspended operations in Yemen on 2 April, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Sanaa government, Hussein Al-Ezzi, confirmed on 8 April that ceasefire violations were increasing on the positions of the Yemeni Army and allied Popular Committees in Marib.

Yemen set the condition for the ceasefire to become permanent only if Saudi Arabia and its coalition put an end to the bombardment of Yemen, and lift the economic blockade on the country.

They also demanded the departure of all foreign forces from Yemen and the end of all funding for mercenary groups.

The president of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, weighed in on the effects of the UN-brokered truce and the future position of Yemen during a televised address carried by Al Masirah TV on 22 May.

“The citizen did not feel a difference between truce and non-truce, which is not encouraging enough. We are not against extending the truce, but what is not possible is accepting any truce in which the suffering of Yemeni people continues,” Al-Mashat said.

On 17 May, the UN declared its intentions to extend the truce in order to begin negotiations to end the seven years of war.

The Yemeni president expressed the desire of his country to engage in real cooperation that leads to the improvement of humanitarian and economic situations in any truce.

Al-Mashat referred to the unelected council appointed by Saudi Arabia as the “Council of Shame,” stating that such a council was responsible for killing Yemeni people and that “there was no difference between their position and that of the traitor Hadi.”

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