Mohammed Sameai
07 January 2025•Update: 08 January 2025
SANAA, Yemen
The Houthi group said Tuesday that the US is preventing the implementation of Yemen's peace roadmap, emphasizing that Washington supports a “peace that does not lead to internal wars.”
The comments were made on the X by Houthi political office member Hussein al-Azzi and statements by Houthi Foreign Minister, of the unrecognized government, Jamal Amer, during a meeting with UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg in the nation’s capital of Sanaa.
Upon his arrival Monday in Sanaa, Grundberg encouraged the Houthis to take “concrete and essential actions for advancing the peace process,” during his first visit to the city in more than a year and a half.
In response, al-Azzi stated that “America is the one preventing other parties (the legitimate Yemeni government) from implementing the roadmap and insists on linking their commitments to the issue of Israel.”
“Using this visit (Grundberg's visit to Sanaa) to cover up the other party’s failure to follow the roadmap and to whitewash their pages filled with hostile military and intelligence actions, while portraying it as if the ball is in Sanaa’s court, is unfortunate and unacceptable,” the Houthi leader added without providing details.
Washington has not responded to al-Azzi’s accusations, but the US previously reaffirmed its commitment to achieving peace in Yemen.
Amer said that “Sanaa's strategic option is for a just and lasting peace that does not lay the foundation for internal wars,” according to the Houthi-run Saba News Agency. “Sanaa maintains unity in its stance and objectives, while the other side (the legitimate government) is divided in its orientations, affiliations, and loyalties to foreign powers.”
He reiterated the Houthi government’s readiness to sign the first phase of the peace roadmap.
Grundberg announced in a statement Sunday that he held talks with Omani officials in Muscat on developments in the Yemeni crisis.
Grundberg’s visits to Muscat and Sanaa come amid ongoing clashes in the Taiz governorate in southwest Yemen between government forces and the Houthi group, threatening the end of a two-year lull in military activity across Yemen.
The UN envoy said Dec. 23 that the Yemeni government and the Houthis had committed to a set of measures under the “roadmap” including a comprehensive cease-fire and improved living conditions for citizens.
The roadmap has yet to be implemented, with the government and the Houthis accusing each other of hindering progress.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio
