Newspaper talks about key term set by Sanaa to extend truce
SANAA, Aug. 01 (YPA) – The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar revealed details about the ongoing talks to extend the truce in Yemen.
“Diplomatic efforts have been made by more than one regional and international party to persuade Yemeni parties to accept the UN offer to extend the truce, before the current lull expires. Representatives of the European Union, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Oman, in charge of communicating with Sana’a, while a US-British team pressured the Saudi-UAE coalition and the Government of Aden to accept the proposal of the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundrabra,” multiple sources told Al-Akhbar.
According to these sources, Sanaa “set several terms to extend the truce, which are opening the roads and completely lift of the siege on the port of Hodeidah and Sanaa airport, while the other party commits to pay the salaries of state employees on a monthly basis without delay.”
Over the past weeks, Sanaa has shown i willingness to expand the truce by adding new provisions. One of the most important provisions is payment of salaries to 750,000 employees who have been facing collective punishment by the pro-coalition government since September 2016.
According to observers, Sanaa’s approval of the UN proposal to extend the truce depends on the UN envoy’s success in deciding on the issue of employee salaries, but indications of the approval of other parties, particularly the Presidential Council in Aden, remain unclear, despite UN envoy’s initial approval of extending the truce without committing to pay salaries during his visit to Aden, which ended Friday.
Diplomatic sources in Sanaa said that the new proposal made by the UN envoy to the parties to the Yemeni conflict includes an extension of the humanitarian and military truce for three months, to compensate the number of flights to and from Sanaa airport, and to open new routes for commercial flights, demanding that ships arriving at Hodeidah port not be intercepted by the coalition.
However, Sanaa added the provision of “the payment of salaries to state employees, which is a key requirement for extending the truce,” the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported.
E.M