Yemeni Governor of Taiz, Dr. Amin Ahmed Mahmoud, urged on Monday the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths to end the suffering of people besieged by Houthi militias and to press the Iran-backed group to withdraw from the province.
Mahmoud also demanded Taiz, a city in southwestern Yemen located near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, tops the list of issues discussed at the ongoing UN-mediated peace talks for Yemen.
“For four years the people of Taiz have been left behind, suffering unending tolls of war, death and destruction,” Mahmoud told Asharq Al-Awsat while arguing that ending the blockade imposed against the province can be negotiated as a display of good intentions to prove Houthis being serious about achieving peace.
Currently, Yemen's warring sides are holding face-to-face discussions over a planned prisoner swap, one of several confidence-building measures aimed at ending more than three years of war that has ravaged the impoverished country.
Addressing the government delegation attending the ongoing peace talks in Sweden, Mahmoud said Houthi militias withdrawing from the province, opening blocked passageways connecting Taiz city to its surroundings and halting indiscriminate and constant shelling of neighborhoods are a cornerstone to having peace in the region.
“After four years of systematic killing and destruction, Houthi militia leaders must understand that it is impossible for the Yemenis to accept their sectarian project to rule over Yemen by force,” Mahmoud added on the struggle faced by Taiz locals.
Houthis, acting with a Tehran-inspired agenda, have sought to stoke sectarian hate among Yemenis to further fuel their nationwide coup.
Mahmoud also called on all national forces and parties to rise above “self-interest.”
“We are in a delicate and fateful stage in which we must prioritize national interests,” he said.
The war has pitted Iran-backed Houthi militias in control of Sana’a and Hodeidha against a UN-recognized government based in Aden backed by a Saudi-led Arab Coalition.
“Houthi militias have exploited political dispute amongst Yemen’s parties to take control over the country,” Mahmoud said.
Sending a strong warning against parties he said are putting personal agendas first, Mahmoud said it would be a “grave mistake” to bargain away Taiz province’s full liberation.
