ADEN // Yemenis have managed to break through a Houthi siege and deliver 12.5 tonnes of flour to the city of Taez, which is surrounded by the rebels, according to a report on Friday.
Men, women and children from Taez province, where the city of the same name is the capital, delivered the food supplies, UAE state news agency Wam reported.
Meanwhile, a senior Houthi leader said efforts to convene UN-backed peace talks for Yemen were failing and blamed the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The UN envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed said last week he was hoping to begin preparatory talks with the government and Houthis separately and expected formal talks between the sides “in the coming weeks”.
“All understandings for a political solution leading to the cessation of aggression have failed,” Houthi spokesman Saleh Al Samad wrote on Facebook.
“Statements put out by the media of the aggressor do nothing but deceive and mislead.”
It is not the first time that the Houthis have rejected negotiations with the Yemeni government. Over the past two years, they have rejected multiple negotiations, including the GCC-backed National Dialogue that included all Yemeni parties.
Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi stressed on Friday that his internationally recognised government was extending an olive branch to achieve security and stability in Yemen and engage in joint efforts to rebuild the country, Wam quoted the Yemen News Agency as saying.
Mr Hadi was speaking during a meeting with Russian ambassador to Riyadh, Oleg Ozerov, in which they discussed the suffering of the Yemeni people.
In Taez city, residents have suffered a months-long siege by the Houthis and their allies – loyalists of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. They lack food, water and medicine and are suffering brutal rebel shelling of residential areas.
Highlighting the crisis, the UN World Food Programme on Friday appealed for safe access to Taez.
“We plead for safe and immediate access to the city of Taez to prevent a humanitarian tragedy as supplies dwindle, threatening the lives of thousands – including women, children and the elderly,” WFP regional director Muhannad Hadi said.
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Prese and Reuters
