Houthis breach truce by keeping roads to Taez blocked, says Yemen's Foreign Minister

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak says the ceasefire last week 'provides hope' of peace

Yemen's government has said four million people have been affected by the Houthi's siege of Taez. Reuters

Yemen's Foreign Minister on Monday accused the Iran-backed Houthi rebels of failing to open roads to the besieged city of Taez in a breach of a UN-brokered truce.

The UN announced last week that the main players in the country's civil war have agreed to extend a two-month ceasefire, which was first reached on April 2, for a second time.

“This truce provides hope. There is calm on the military fronts,” Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak said after meeting Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, home of the office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen.

“There remains one issue that was not abided by at all, which is opening the roads around besieged cities; Taez and other Yemeni provinces."

Amman was the destination of the first flight from Sanaa airport. The plane flew in May under the terms of a truce that allowed the airport in the Yemeni capital to reopen for civil flights.

More than four million Yemenis have been affected by Houthi blockade of roads, Mr bin Mubarak said.

He denied Houthi accusations that the internationally recognised government failed to deliver quotas of fuel to the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah.

He said the government complied fully to deliver the fuel.

The US has welcomed the truce extension, with President Joe Biden saying it has brought a period of “unprecedented calm” to Yemen.

Updated: August 08, 2022, 3:13 PM