by Murad Abdu
ADEN, Yemen, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's internationally-backed President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi insisted Wednesday on full withdrawal of the Houthi rebels from the strategic port city of Hodeidah as a condition of a UN-brokered peace deal.
He made the comment while receiving the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths in Aden.
An Aden-based government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Xinhua that Martin Griffiths informed Hadi in a meeting in Aden's Republican Compound that the Iranian-backed Houthis accepted the proposal of placing Hodeidah port under the UN mandate.
"Houthis agreed only to cede management of Hodeidah's port to the UN but asked to remain in control over the other parts of the city," the source said.
However, President Hadi strongly rejected the proposal and insisted on complete withdrawal of Houthi fighters from the entire province of Hodeidah and its port.
"Hadi told the UN envoy that the presence of Houthi militants in Hodeidah is totally refused and no longer acceptable," the source said.
At the end of the meeting, Hadi told the UN envoy that the Iranian-backed Houthis must completely withdraw from the whole areas of Hodeidah or face a full-scale military operation in the next days, according to the Yemeni official.
Yemen's Foreign Ministry also confirmed this stance in a statement.
"The port management cannot be considered in isolation from the whole city of Hodeidah and providing protection for the international navigation cannot be achieved without full departure of Houthi militias from the entire province," the ministry said.
The security forces of the country's Interior Ministry must be deployed to secure government institutions and Hodeidah's port following Houthis' full withdrawal from the city, it added.
The UN envoy left Aden hours after his arrival in the city and no official statement has been issued from his office regarding the results of his talks with Hadi.
Griffiths was expected to make an effort by presenting a new peace deal to stop an all-out military offensive against the Houthis in the western port city of Hodeidah.
Earlier in the day, a government official said he was not confident that a UN-supervised deal can be achieved between Houthis and the Yemeni government to prevent an escalation of fighting around Hodeidah.
Expelling the Houthis out of Hodeidah was a "sovereign decision" made by Hadi after "exhausting all political solutions to convince Houthis to withdraw from Hodeidah peacefully," the government source said on condition of anonymity.
"It is impossible to stop the ongoing military operation aimed at retaking Hodeidah and ending the civilians' suffering there. It's not an appropriate time for negotiations because Houthis lost that chance," he added.
On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said a UN-led political process in Yemen can be accelerated only after Hodeidah is liberated from Houthi rebels.
"We are determined to end this war. Our priority is the peaceful withdrawal of Houthi militias from the city and the port," Gargash said on his Twitter account.
Hours after the departure of the UN envoy, the Yemeni government forces, backed by the UAE, launched a large military operation against Houthi fighters positioned in Fazah farms in Hodeidah.
An army officer told Xinhua by phone that "armed confrontations escalated as government forces decided to expel the rebels out from the Fazah farms."
He said warplanes and UAE's Apache helicopters were involved in the anti-Houthi operation in Hodeidah, killing and injuring scores of Houthi rebels.
About 13 young Houthi fighters were captured by the government forces during the ongoing armed confrontations in Fazah, according to the officer.
Hodeidah is the single most important point of entry for food and basic supplies to Yemen's northern provinces controlled by Houthis.
Yemeni observers said the efforts of the UN envoy failed to prevent an all-out attack against Hodeidah and both warring sides have prepared themselves well for long street battles.
Civilians are besieged and not allowed to flee war-ravaged areas in Hodeidah and the majority of them will be caught in the fighting inside the city.
Close to 70 percent of the country's imports, including commercial and humanitarian goods, enter the impoverished Arab country through Hodeidah and Saleef, a coastal village in western Yemen.
The Yemeni government and Saudi-led coalition have repeatedly accused Houthis in Hodeidah of hindering the access of humanitarian aid to the seaport and excessively delaying the delivery of humanitarian assistance to famine-hit areas.
The Hodeidah port, which Iran-backed Houthis captured in October 2014, serves as a key source of strength for Houthi militias because it is regarded as a lifeline for many Yemenis.
The United Nations warned that the battles to liberate Hodeidah, which has the highest poverty and malnutrition rates in war-torn Yemen, could lead to the death of 250,000 people.
