Houthi official suspicious of call for group to halt rocket fire into Saudi Arabia
197 views · Published 24 November 2018 · 1:19 · Indexed 11 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(19 Nov 2018) A Houthi official in Sanaa said calls for the Houthi side to stop firing rockets and guided missiles were an "excuse" for the Saudi-led coalition to "abandon their obligations." Abdel Wahab Al-Mahbishi's comments come after a senior leader of Yemen's Shiite rebels said Monday that the group will halt rocket fire into Saudi Arabia for the sake of peace efforts, answering a key Saudi demand in the latest push to stop the bloodshed and civilian suffering in the Arab world's poorest country. The announcement, however, looked less than airtight, as the rebel defence ministry also said it had fired a ballistic missile into Saudi Arabia overnight in response to an attempted border incursion in Hajjah province, adding in its statement that while it supported halting missile launches it also reserved the right to respond to attacks. Al-Mahbishi, though, expressed doubts that the Saudi-led coalition would respect a ceasefire. The Houthi official and head of the legal committee for Ansar Allah, the Houthi group's political arm, said that he didn't trust the latest peace initiative. "The coalition will not stop the aggression, the aggressive party does not usually stop, and they see these sort of initiatives as a sign of weakness," he said. For the past three years, a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has been waging war against the rebels, known as Houthis, to restore Yemen's internationally recognised government to power. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in the war so far, and two-thirds of Yemen's 27 million-strong population relies on aid. More than 8 million are at risk of starvation in what has become the world's worst humanitarian disaster. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7256b0afde3c7480aba3536bbd85b207
