The Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen expressed on Tuesday their regret at accepting the conditions of the Sweden ceasefire deal on Hodeidah that was reached in December.
A minister in the Houthis’ illegitimate government, Hassan Zeid, said that the militias committed a “strategic error” in agreeing to the deal because they lost several humanitarian cards that they were exploiting for their interests before the international community and United Nations.
With these cards gone, attention was shifted to the Houthis’ intransigence and refusal to implement the Sweden deal.
Zeid, who is wanted by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, acknowledged that the Sweden consultations cost the militias the media campaign that they had promoted before international organizations.
Instead, he continued, attention was now focused on the obstacles that are hindering the implementation of the Sweden agreement.
“The devil,” he remarked, led the Houthis down a “dark tunnel” after they accepted the deal.
Zeid was among other Houthi leaders who had called for expelling the UN Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) and its head, retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert, after he had rejected the militias’ ploy in Hodeidah.
The Sweden deal calls for the Houthis to withdraw from Hodeidah city and its three ports. Control of these areas should be restored to the authorities that were present there before the 2014 Houthi coup.
The militias alleged to have withdrawn, but later returned under the guise of security forces. The UN was alerted to the ploy and accused the Houthis of failing to honor the Sweden deal.
The Houthi representatives in the RCC have, meanwhile, been refusing to attend its meetings. Legitimate government representatives are also part of the team. Instead, the militias have been continuing their violations of the ceasefire by carrying more attacks and amassing their forces in Hodeidah.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday that Cammaert has held two joint meetings involving both sides, but “in the last week, due to the inability of the parties to have a joint meeting” he had meet them separately twice, “seeking to find a mutually acceptable way forward for the redeployment of forces from the three ports and critical parts of the city associated with humanitarian facilities, as provided for in phase one in the Stockholm Agreement.”
“The chair continues to encourage the parties to resume the joint meetings in order to finalize a mutually agreed redeployment plan. Currently, plans are being discussed on how to facilitate humanitarian operations.”
