The Houthi group Friday denied the existence of a truce in Yemen until Saudi Arabia extended it, in the first response from the group to the announcement of the Saudi-Emirati coalition to extend the comprehensive ceasefire in Yemen for a month at the request of the United Nations.
Houthi political bureau member Muhammad al-Bakhiti said in a Tweet on Twitter that there is no truce in Yemen until Saudi Arabia extends it, but rather an escalation that has extended it. He added that the goal of Riyadh from this "false declaration" is according to what it described as the pre-justification of its expected defeat in the eastern province of Marib.
In the context, the military spokesman for the Houthi group, Yahya Sari, pointed out that the Saudi-Emirati coalition planes carried out 35 air strikes in separate areas of Marib, Saada and Makhiras.
He added that the Houthis and the Popular Committees had responded to a massive advance by the coalition forces from two tracks towards Houthi positions in the Ragwan District in Ma'rib Governorate.
The leadership of the Saudi-Emirati coalition forces had announced earlier to extend the comprehensive ceasefire in Yemen for a month.
A coalition spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, said that the ceasefire decision came at the request of international envoy Martin Griffiths to allow the opportunity to make progress in the negotiations on a permanent ceasefire and to resume the political process.
Al-Maliki stated that the leadership of the Saudi-Emirati coalition confirms that the opportunity remains ripe for a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Yemen.
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Truce and accusations
The truce announced - unilaterally - by the Saudi-led coalition for two weeks in Yemen ended on Thursday without the fighting between the Houthis and the legitimate forces supported by the Saudi-Emirati coalition, especially since the Houthi group expressed its opposition from the truce from the beginning.
The coalition's unilateral announcement of the armistice came in response to a call by the United Nations to stop the fighting to allow international efforts to prevent the outbreak of the Corona epidemic in Yemen, and to create the atmosphere for a possible settlement ending the war that has lasted for more than five years.
The Houthis rejected the declared truce and accused the coalition of "practicing fraud and misleading the world."
Their spokesman, Muhammad Abd al-Salam, said in a tweet published on April 13 that the ceasefire from the coalition side "was not achieved in the first place, but the escalation of air strikes and the launching of crawling (crawling operations)."
Earlier, the Reuters news agency said that the United Nations had tried in the past two weeks to conduct video-based talks between the parties to the conflict in Yemen, in order to stabilize the armistice and agree on confidence-building measures between the belligerents in preparation for the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the Yemeni crisis.
The Houthis had controlled state institutions in Sana'a, expelled the legitimate government in late 2014, controlled most of the northern governorates, and marched toward Aden (south) before the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015.