UN special envoy to Yemen visits Iran to discuss truce expansion

Hans Grundberg met the Iranian foreign minister with just weeks to go until the ceasefire expires

Yemen has been swamped by severe humanitarian problems, which have been made worse by dangers of landmines. All photos: Masam

The country has already been ravaged by poverty, war and economic collapse and to compound matters, landmines have been laid across much of the nation in a series of conflicts and uprisings.

The explosives have been used extensively by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as part of the civil war that began in 2014.

But efforts are under way to demine Yemen, including by the Yemeni authorities and the Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance (Masam).

The demining campaign was launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre.

Since 2018, Masam has been removing mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.

Ousama Algosaibi, Masam’s managing director, says the task is mammoth because the number of explosive devices laid in Yemen is 'mind-boggling'.

Mr Algosaibi says landmines have been found in villages, on agricultural land, in children’s schools and on roads leading to villages.

Mr Algosaibi says: ‘These are all civilian areas that are now very far from any active front. I don’t understand the reason they have planted those areas with mines and IEDs.’

'What is the use of planting IEDs under the floor of a children’s school?' he says. 'It just doesn’t make sense.'

'Houthis want to use that as ... a terror tool against the local population, against the local civilians' Mr Algosaibi suggests.

The demining is carried out by 32 teams of Yemenis, who have been through comprehensive training.

Residents may pinpoint a location where a mine cost a relative a leg or killed an animal, and operatives can often then work out the line in which others were laid.

Metal detectors highlight the precise location of devices, which are typically collected and destroyed, hundreds at a time, in controlled explosions.

Masam and other entities carrying out demining in Yemen are doing so while conflict continues to rage.

Masam has cleared more than 32 million square metres and destroyed more than 335,000 explosives to date.

Operating in a war zone magnifies the dangers to the staff and Masam has lost 28 personnel in 16 incidents.

Half of these incidents happened during demining, such as when a mine or other device suddenly exploded or was booby trapped.

The other eight were caused directly by the civil war, such as when drones targeted vehicles or camps.

UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg visited Iran to discuss expanding a fragile truce in Yemen after weeks of escalation by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, his office said on Monday.

Mr Grundberg held talks with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and other officials.

"Discussions focused on efforts to extend and expand the truce in Yemen as well as current regional dynamics," his office said on Twitter.

Mr Grundberg's trip to Iran, his first since he was appointed in August last year, comes as he seeks a third extension to the UN-brokered truce that began in April.

However, his efforts might be complicated by a recent increase in military activity by the Houthi rebels against government forces.

Last week, the Iran-backed group killed 10 members of Yemen's army and wounded seven others in an attack in Taez. Yemen's armed forces said they had been staving off tens of Houthi attacks on the besieged city in the south-west.

Under the truce, which Mr Grundberg has called "fragile", the Houthis were supposed to reopen the roads around Taez to allow aid residents to travel and to allow aid to enter.

Pro-government Yemeni activists and politicians have been growing increasingly wary of a further extension of the truce, which expires this month.

Mr Grundberg's visit to Iran is not the first by a UN envoy to Yemen.

Pro-Houthis forces parade in Yemen's western city of Hodeidah on September 1, 2022. Houthi military handout / EPA

His predecessor, Martin Griffiths, made a similar trip last year where he met then foreign minister Javad Zarif in a bid to reach a political solution to the conflict.

Mr Grundberg's efforts have, for the first time in the seven years, brought a few months of peace across the country with a significant reduction in violence across front lines.

Yemen has been in a state of conflict since the Houthi takeover of the capital Sanaa in 2014 and the subsequent intervention by a Saudi-led coalition on behalf of the government to restore it to power.