In recent days, the battle for the strategic port of Hodeida in Yemen has heated up. The Saudi-led Arab coalition is on the cusp of victory over the Iran-backed Al Houthi militia that usurped power after its coup against the legitimate government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Since it intervened militarily in Yemen, the coalition alongside Yemeni nationalist forces has steadily ousted the Al Houthis from areas they controlled, to the extent that the legitimate government backed by the coalition now controls over 85 per cent of the territory.
The importance of Hodeida lies in the fact that it has a direct impact on hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. It’s the key entry point for humanitarian supplies to Yemen.
But the port is also considered the main gateway to capital Sana’a, which has allowed Al Houthis to try to control the shipping routes connecting Yemen to the outside world, as well as benefiting financially from taxing the goods that come in.
And more crucially, the port is used by Iran to smuggle weapons that have sustained the Al Houthis’ war effort.
If the Al Houthis are serious about peace, they must act on Hodeida port. The best way to go about this is to hand it over to the UN. The world body is a neutral entity that has been involved in the negotiating process in Yemen since the beginning.
In fact, the latest UN peace plan for Yemen has called on the militants to give up their ballistic missiles in return for an end to air strikes against them by the coalition, and a transitional governance agreement.
The fact is the coalition and the Yemeni government cannot simply allow the militia to keep control of Hodeida, as that would mean a continuation of the war as a result of arms supplies from Tehran. These arms have also included ballistic missiles, which the militia has regularly been launching at Saudi Arabia.
Just on Friday, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al Maliki said Saudi forces monitored two ballistic missiles launched by Al Houthis towards Najran in a deliberate attempt to inflict harm by targeting civilian areas.
These acts by Al Houthis will go to prove just why it is so important that the port in Hodeida is not under their control, as they will only use it to smuggle in more missiles from their Iranian patrons to spread strife in the Arabian Gulf.
