 UN's Yemen envoy in Sanaa, as 32 rebels killed Aden (AFP) Sept 16, 2018 - Fresh clashes and air strikes around the Yemeni city of Hodeida have killed 32 rebels, hospital and medical sources said Sunday, as the UN envoy kept up peace efforts in Sanaa. A military source told AFP the Saudi-led coalition fighting alongside the Yemeni government against Shiite Huthi rebels carried out an air raid on a radio station tower in the port city of Hodeida. Three people died in Sunday's raid, he said, while Huthi-run Al-Masirah television said four people were killed, three security guards and a station employee. According to medical sources in Hodeida province, which is controlled by the Huthis, at least 32 insurgents have been killed and 14 others wounded in clashes and air strikes since Saturday. The coalition accuses the Tehran-aligned Huthis of smuggling arms from Iran through Hodeida and has imposed a partial blockade on the port, which the rebels seized in 2014. In June, pro-government forces launched a major operation to retake both the city and its port, the entry point of most of the impoverished country's imports and aid. The troops, backed by coalition air strikes, have retaken a number of towns across Hodeida province but have not yet breached the city. The coalition in July announced a temporary ceasefire in Hodeida to give a chance to UN-brokered peace talks. The UN's Yemen envoy, Martin Griffiths, arrived Sunday in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, without making any statement to the media. Griffiths is pushing for new peace talks after a failed attempt to bring the two sides together in Geneva earlier this month. The rebels kept away from the talks, accusing the UN of failing to guarantee the return of their delegation from Switzerland to Sanaa and to secure the evacuation of wounded rebels to Oman. The Huthis' foreign minister, Hisham Sharaf Abdallah, said his side supported the UN's peace efforts and urged it to pressure the coalition to stop "targeting civilians", the rebel-run news agency Saba reported. He called for confidence-building measures such as the reopening of Sanaa airport to commercial flights and the payment of civil servants' salaries in all areas of Yemen. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in 2015 in the conflict between embattled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, whose government is recognised by the United Nations, and the Huthis. Nearly 10,000 people have since been killed and the country now stands on the brink of famine.
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Spain's prime minister on Sunday defended his government's controversial decision to go ahead with the delivery of 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, saying it was needed to preserve good ties with the Gulf state.
His Socialist government announced earlier this month that it would block the delivery of the weapons amid concerns that they could harm civilians in Yemen where Saudi Arabi is engaged in a bloody conflict.
But on Thursday Foreign Minister Josep Borrell announced the government had decided to deliver the weapons after all, angering humanitarian groups.
Cancellation of the deal would jeopardise a much larger order for five Corvette warships worth 1.8 billion euros, to be built by Spain's Navantia shipyard in the southern region of Andalusia, with thousands of jobs at stake.
Workers in the region, a stronghold of the ruling Socialist Party, had staged demonstrations pressing for the deal to go ahead.
Asked about the policy reversal during an interview with private television La Sexta, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his government risked "creating the image that it was revising its entire relationship" with Saudi Arabia if it did not deliver the weapons.
"The situation was very complicated. The dilemma the government faced was breaking its commercial, economic and political ties with Saudi Arabia, with the impact this could have in some areas of the country, such as the Bay of Cadiz, or carry out a contract signed by the previous government," he added.
Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally, had already paid 9.2 million euros ($10.7 million) for the bombs under a 2015 contract signed by a previous, conservative administration in Spain.
Apart from the warship deal, Madrid has obtained juicy engineering contracts to build a high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina, and a metro in Riyadh.
Spain is the fourth largest provider of military equipment and weapons to the Gulf state, according to Amnesty International.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other allies intervened in 2015 after Huthi rebels ousted the government from the capital Sanaa and seized swathes of the country.
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