AIJES-Paris

Frank Leducq, the French expert on Yemeni affairs and Secretary General of the organisation Actions for a Solidary Republic, based in Paris, called yesterday on the international community to liberate the city of Hodeidah in western Yemen from the control of the Houthi militia , which in turn will reduce the threats to the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, as well as launching of missiles at Israel as he said to AIJES.

Franck Leducq added to AIJES that most of the threats to the Red Sea, as well as most of missile launch sites, are located in  Hodeidah, which the United Nations handed over to the Houthis in 2018 under (Stockholm Agreement) for peace!

« I and many experts from US,France,UK,Belgium Tunisia and Yemen stressed, in a meeting held in Brussels about Yemen during the battles in Hodeidah in August 2018, that the fall of the coastal city into the hands of the Houthi militia would represent a terrible threat and that, in this case, the United Nations had to intervene to impose an international or an independent peacekeeping » declares the French expert.

« The Yemeni government and the Houthis, under the auspices of the United Nations, signed the Stockholm Peace Agreement in December 2018 on the basis of handing over Hodeidah to independent forces, but what happened after that was that Hodeidah was handed over to the Houthi militia and there were no independent forces », Leducq added.

It seems that the Yemeni government was deceived and the UN envoy at that time was a part to that, Franck Leducq concludes .

On December 13, 2018, Yemen government and representatives of Houthi rebels came together in Stockholm, Sweden, and agreed to a series of undertakings that raised hopes for a peaceful settlement of the conflict that began in 2015.

The agreement included a ceasefire in the city of Hodeidah, a prisoner exchange, and a commitment to demilitarize the city.

Despite the agreement, the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on government forces and civilians, violating the ceasefire and hindering the implementation of the agreement.

Overall, The Houthis have repeatedly violated the ceasefire provisions of the Stockholm Agreement, using it as a tactical tool to regroup and launch new attacks.

Currently, the Houthis are using the city of Hodeidah to launch missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea, as well as launching a missiles towards Israel, which poses a clear threat to the regional and international stability and security.