Saudi Gazette report

Riyadh — It is vital for Hodeida to be cleared of Houthi militias urgently to allow humanitarian corridor, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a tweet after meeting his Saudi counterpart Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir here on Saturday.

“Excellent first meeting with FM Ibrahim Al-Assaf & @AdelAljubeir today in Riyadh. Our strategic partnership w/Saudi Arabia helps us to keep the UK safe, to make progress on diplomatic priorities like Yemen, and to discuss frankly issues of concern,” he tweeted.

Hunt tweeted that he and Jubeir agreed that progress on Stockholm was overdue.

The British foreign secretary also met Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi.

“Progress fragile but within sight for UN-backed peace talks on Yemen, as I discussed with Yemeni President Hadi in Riyadh today. There is a lack of trust and it is taking too long to implement Stockholm but no one has a better plan so we need to get going and end the crisis,” he tweeted.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Yamani said the deadline for the Houthi withdrawal from the ports of of Saleef and Ras Issa ended on Thursday, adding that the insurgents were “manipulating” the deal on redeployment of forces in line with the plan proposed by the head of the UN observer mission in Yemen, Danish former general Michael Lollesgaard.