By Ali Oweida

MAARIB, Yemen

UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has unveiled a proposal made by the Houthi rebel group that Yemen’s coveted Al-Hudaydah seaport be put under UN supervision -- a proposal, he said, to which Yemen’s Aden-based government had also agreed.

In an interview with the UN’s official news website, Griffiths said finding a solution to the ongoing fight over Al-Hudaydah was “inextricably linked to the resumption of political talks” between the government and the Houthis.

The Houthis’ proposal, he went on to explain, would give the UN a “lead role” in managing the seaport. 

“Both the Yemen government and the… Houthi rebels have accepted this provision, dependent upon an overall ceasefire,” he said, without providing a timeframe for the proposal’s implementation.

Control of the strategic seaport, Griffiths added, “is an extraordinarily important issue, but it is not more important than the issue of finding a comprehensive political solution [to the wider Yemen conflict]”. 

On Thursday, Griffiths wrapped up a tour of the region during which he met Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in Aden and chief Houthi negotiator Mohamed Abdel Salam in Muscat.

Since June 13, Yemeni government forces -- backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- have waged a wide-ranging operation to retake Al-Hudaydah and its strategic seaport from Houthi rebels. 

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa. 

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies -- who accuse the Shia Houthis of serving as Iranian proxies -- launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains. 

The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait failed to end the destructive war.