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Yemen Sets Timetable for Huthis to Implement Truce Terms
Yemen has set a timetable for Huthis to implement the government's terms for a ceasefire in the northern mountains, a presidential adviser said on Saturday.
The details have been transmitted to their leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi through a go-between, Abdul Karim al-Ariani told reporters. "After the agreement by the Huthis to the six conditions, the high security committee has drawn up an implementation timetable which will be overseen by five parliamentary committees," Ariani said. "If they agree to it and sign it, the war will end immediately," he said.
At the end of last month, the group offered to accept the five conditions originally set by the government for a ceasefire.
These five conditions include Huthis' withdrawal from official buildings, the reopening of road in the north, the return of weapons seized from security services, the release of all military and civilian prisoners, including Saudis, as well as the abandoning of military posts in the mountains.
But the government rejected the offer, saying the Huthis also needed to accept a sixth key condition, which was a promise to stop attacking Saudi territory.
The group said they have withdrawn from all of the Saudi territory, but are continuing to come under Saudi attack inside Yemen.
As the peace feelers have faltered over the past week, there has been renewed fighting between the Huthis and the army.
Saudi Saudi Arabia that entered the war Last December, has launched air raids and killed 14 people, including women and children, a statement on the Huthis' website said on Thursday. 23 Yemeni soldiers were killed in twin attacks in the northern mountains on Friday, tribal and Huthis sources said.
The new fighting came as a Yemeni court handed down a 15-year jail sentence against the fugitive brother of Huthis' leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi after convicting him of carrying out "acts of terror".
The court found Yahia al-Huthi guilty in absentia of plotting the murders of important figures, including the American ambassador in Sanaa. It also convicted him of being in a "terrorist organization, assaulting the constitutional order, disseminating tendentious information and contacts with foreign powers".
Huthi, who has fled to Germany, was elected to parliament in 2003 on the ticket of the General People's Congress of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but his parliamentary immunity was lifted late last year.
Al-ManarTV
Sunday 07-02-2010
