YEMEN-SECURITY/SAUDI-TAIZ Yemeni foreign minister says Taiz city will soon be liberated

Record ID: 134687

  • Title: YEMEN-SECURITY/SAUDI-TAIZ Yemeni foreign minister says Taiz city will soon be liberated
  • Date: 13th October 2015
  • Summary: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (OCTOBER 13, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF YEMENI FOREIGN MINISTER, RIYADH YASEEN, SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7YJ2T1U7NOBVE8Z0WMUHV4REB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Yemen's third largest city, Taiz, which was seized by Houthi fighters and aligned army units in March, will soon be liberated, Yemeni foreign minister Riyadh Yaseen told a news conference in Riyadh on Tuesday (October 13).
    "We assure you that I feel that security and stability and the liberation of Taiz will be soon. Today I am more confident that Taiz will return soon, few more steps and Taiz will be liberated," Yaseen told reporters.
    Taiz is a bastion of opposition to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of the Houthi movement, and played a role in 2011 Arab Spring protests that eventually led to his departure from power.
    Saleh, who enjoys the loyalty of the armed forces despite having stepped down from office nearly four years ago after months of protests, had joined forces with the Iran-backed Houthis in fighting a Saudi-led alliance trying to shore up President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
    Speaking about possible talks to end the crisis, Yassen said the government will not join any dialogue unless the Houthis accept a U.N.-sponsored resolution.
    "We can not go to a political dialogue that gives the militias who have used force and violence the right to impose their opinion by force. This can not be accepted by law and logic. We are talking now about the implementation of the resolution (2261) and this is what was agreed upon in the United Nations," he said.
    Resolution 2216 calls on the Houthis to quit cities they had seized since September 2014 and to recognise Hadi as the legitimate president of Yemen.
    U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in June failed to achieve a breakthrough.
    Saleh has vowed to honour the peace plan and to quit Yemeni cities if a Saudi-led Arab alliance stopped air strikes on the country.
    Saleh also told the Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen television in an interview broadcast on Monday (October 12) that he was ready to quit his position as head of the country's largest party, the General People's Congress (GPC), to facilitate an end to fighting that has killed more than 5,000 people.
    Speaking during the news conference, Yaseen had a different take on Saleh's plans.
    "After he lost his old cards and his presence in the General People's Congress as well as his goals with his alliance, with the Houthi militias and Iran, it seems now that he will move the terrorist organisations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. He will move them now to start a final and definitive stage inside Aden," he said.
    The Houthis and Saleh's GPC last week sent letters to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon declaring their acceptance of the peace plan, which includes a Security Council resolution adopted in April calling on the Houthis to quit cities captured since September last year.
    But a spokesman for Hadi dismissed those acceptances as a "manoeuvre" and demanded that the Iran-backed group hand back territory it has seized since last year.
    Saleh said he was willing to step down as head of the GPC within 21 days in exchange for ending the attacks on Yemen and lifting a blockade on the entry of supplies to the country.
    The Saudi-led alliance regards the Houthis as proxies for non-Arab Iran, a main regional rival for Saudi Arabia.
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