[05/03/2019 01:24]

ADEN-SABA
Yemen's government said it was surprised by the remarks of the British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt which affirm the Houthi pretexts for not honoring the agreement to withdraw from Hodeidah city.

Speaking to the BBC, Hunt said: “They [the Houthis] agreed that they would leave, but what they are saying, and I think the cause of the deadlock, is we agreed to leave because we wanted Hodeidah to be under neutral control … they are worried that if they leave Hodeidah, the other side will just move in.”

In response statement Yemen's Foreign Ministry has said: "While all the Yemeni laws and the international resolutions and stances enshrine the exclusive right of the Yemeni government to run the affairs of Yemen and to extend control over the country's entire soil, the Yemeni government stresses that Hodeidah is only part of that Yemeni soil."

The ministry said the Stockholm Agreement states that "Hodeidah's authority (after the Houthi withdrawal) should rest in the hands of the security forces as per the Yemeni law" and that Hunt's talk of "neutral control" is an odd interpretation of the agreement.

The government said the task of the international community is to "implement the Agreement, not to interpret it in contradiction to its content and search for inapplicable solutions."

The government said "any arrangements to be made before ensuring the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement will be ahead of their due time. Things should depend on the Houthi ending of their coup and handover of arms and state institutions back to the government."

The government said the international community should shoulder their responsibility of pushing for the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement in which the government offered several concessions.

---