Houthi rebels announce halt of missile attacks on Saudi, UAE

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Sunday night announced halt of ballistic missile attack against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), media reported.

"We announce the halt of firing ballistic missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to drop any justification for their continued aggression or blockade, and we are ready to freeze and stop all other military operations," Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, chief of the so-called "the supreme revolutionary committee", said in a statement.

He said the move came in response to demands by the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths who has asked his group to stop missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a "show of the good will before heading to the peace talks," reports Xinhua.

Al-Houthi also said his group is ready for the coming peace talks and ending the war.

On Friday, Griffiths told the UN Security Council that he planned to bring the Yemeni warring parties together "soon" in Sweden.

He also said the government and Houthis were about to conclude an agreement on exchanging prisoners and detainees.

Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa.

--IANS

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