HODEIDA: Yemen's
Houthi movement yesterday started withdrawing forces from Saleef port in
Hodeidah under a UN-sponsored deal that had been stalled for months, a Reuters
witness said, reviving hopes for peace efforts to end the four-year war. The
move, which has yet to be verified by the UN and accepted by the Saudi-led
coalition, is the first major step in implementing the pact reached last year
by the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthis for a truce and
troop withdrawal in Hodeida, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis.

UN teams were
overseeing the Houthi redeployment in Saleef, used for grain, as other teams
headed to the second port of Ras Isa, used for oil, to start implementing the
Houthi withdrawal from there, according to the witness. A dozen trucks carrying
Houthi fighters, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine
guns, departed from Saleef. Two ships were docked at the port and operations
were running normally, said the witness who was at the facility. "The
coast guards have taken over in Saleef," he said. "They and UN
officials have started checking equipment at the port."

The UN's
Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) has said that the Houthis would make
an "initial unilateral redeployment" between May 11 and May 14 from
Saleef, Ras Isa and Yemen's main port of Hodeida. It said the redeployment
would enable the United Nations to take a leading role in supporting Red Sea
Ports Corporation in managing the ports and enhance UN checks on cargoes. It
would also allow reopening humanitarian corridors.

But a senior
pro-government official accused the Houthi rebels of faking an announced
pullout from three Red Sea ports in the flashpoint province of Hodeida
yesterday. "The Houthis are staging a new ploy by handing over the ports
of Hodeida, Saleef and Ras Issa to themselves without any monitoring by the
United Nations and the government side," provincial governor Al-Hasan
Taher told AFP.

Taher's
accusation came after the Houthi rebels, who have been in control of the ports
since 2014, said they had carried out their obligations. "We have
implemented all obligations of the first phase of redeployment. The UN must
commit the other side to implement its obligations," Brigadier Mohammed
Al-Qaderi, the Houthi representative in a joint coordination team, said on
Twitter.

Sources close to
the Iran-aligned Houthis told AFP that the ports were handed over to coast
guard personnel who were in charge before the rebels took over almost five
years ago. There was no independent confirmation of a rebel withdrawal, and a
UN observer mission in the city of Hodeida remained cautious in its initial
assessment. "The UN has started monitoring this unilateral step," a
source told AFP. "The UN hopes soon to be in a position to report to the
Security Council on actual movements on the ground."

The council is
due to hear a briefing on Hodeida on Wednesday. The Hodeida governor said the
unilateral step of the Houthis contradicted the terms of the ceasefire deal and
accused the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, of collaborating with the
rebels. "Martin Griffiths wants to achieve victory even if the Houthis
hand over (the ports) to themselves," the government-appointed official said.
"This is totally rejected by us, and the agreement must be implemented in
full, especially with regards to the identity of the troops that will take over
from the Houthis," Taher said.

Hodeidah became
the focus of the war last year when the coalition twice tried to seize its port
to cut off the main supply line of the Houthis, who they accuse of smuggling
Iranian weapons, including missiles that have targeted Saudi cities. The group
and Tehran deny the accusations. The peace deal had stalled since January amid deep
mistrust among the parties in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and
pushed the poorest Arabian Peninsula nation to the brink of famine. It calls
for coalition forces to leave positions around the outskirts of Hodeida in the
initial redeployment.

UN assessment
next week

It was not clear
if Griffiths had secured agreement between the two sides over the main sticking
point regarding which local authorities would control the ports and city under
UN supervision after both sides withdraw. The coalition had disputed an earlier
unilateral withdrawal by the Houthis from Hodeida port in December, saying they
had handed it over to coast guard members loyal to the group.

A UN source told
Reuters yesterday that the RCC would announce its assessment of the Houthi
redeployment next week. Under the first phase, the Houthis would pull back five
km from the three ports over the next four days. Coalition forces, currently
massed four km from Hodeida port on the edges of the city, would retreat one km
from "Kilo 8" and Saleh districts. In the second phase, both sides
would pull troops 18 km outside the city and heavy weapons 30 km away.

The United
Nations secured the Hodeida deal at peace talks in Sweden, the first in two
years, to avert a full-scale assault on the port that risked so disrupting
supply lines that it could trigger mass famine. The pact is also a
trust-building step to pave the way for wider political negotiations to end the
conflict, widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and
Iran. Western allies, which supply arms and intelligence to the coalition, have
pushed for an end to the war.

The alliance led
by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in 2015 after
the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government of Abd-Rabbu
Mansour Hadi from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014. The Houthis, who say
their revolution is against corruption, control the biggest urban centers while
Hadi's government holds the southern port of Aden and a string of coastal
towns. - Agencies