Spotlight: Tension persists in Yemen; heavy weapons major issue at upcoming talks

Four days into a cessation of hostilities between the Saudi-supported Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi rebel group, artillery and machine gun fire can still be heard near a frontline outside the rebel-held capital, Sanna.

Aircraft of a Saudi-led coalition could also be heard overhead oftentimes.

"This is a war zone, we are repelling the attacking mercenaries," a Houthi fighter shouted as he stood with his comrades in their grey-patterned camouflage uniform in a roundabout on a road to Nehim district to alert citizens to drive away to another safe road.

"CEASE-FIRE DOES NOT CEASE FIRE"

Houthi media reported its forces countered an attempt of advance by their opponents on Wednesday, saying many of their Houthi fighters were killed in the attacks.

It also quoted Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam as saying that "those violations to the cease-fire could affect the ongoing understandings and progress of the upcoming political talks."

The United Nations-sponsored talks were scheduled to start on April 18 in Kuwait.

Pro-government media outlets, meanwhile, reported the death of a loyalist brigadier general along with a dozen of soldiers in clashes against Houthi rebels in Nehim on Wednesday.

Residents said the clashes continued without stop since the truce began midnight Sunday. They also reported seeing both sides increasing reinforcements to their frontlines.

"Nothing changed," said Mohamed Mukhtar, a resident in Bani Hishaish, about 10 km from Nehim. "The cease-fire does not cease fire."

Early this year, forces of the government of internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi advanced to Nehim, some 30 km northeast of Sanaa.

They are now controlling most the district's strategic hills overlooking roads to the capital.

"Beside Nehim, the fighting continues in all other front lines in al-Jouf and Marib provinces to the north and al-Bayda and Taiz city to the south," said Arif al-Doush, a Yemeni columnist based in Sanaa.

HEAVY WEAPONS REPOSITIONED

He said both sides "are keeping re-positioning with heavy weapons in all lines and trying to advance" in disregard of the truce and the upcoming peace talks.

The United Nations hopes the truce would facilitate the Kuwait talks and push the war-torn country one step closer to ending a war that has raged for more than a year and killed over 6,000 people, mostly civilians.

It has been now a year and seven months since Shiite Houthi militias advanced southward from their far north stronghold in Saada province, seizing control of the capital, Sanaa, and other major cities in September 2014.

The Houthi group, describing the advance as a "revolution against government corruption," drove Hadi and his government into exile, a move that prompted Hadi to request in March last year an Arab military coalition led by oil-rich Saudi Arabia to intervene to end the "rebellion."

In July, coalition-backed forces drove Houthi militias out of four southern provinces including the port city of Aden, which became a temporary capital for Hadi's government.

Government forces later captured half of the oil-rich northern province of Marib and advanced to Nehim on the northeast outskirts of Sanaa.

Both warring sides have named their monitors to the truce and participants in the scheduled peace talks in Kuwait, the fifth round of negotiations after all previous ones failed to achieve any progress.

MAJOR DIFFERENCES REMAIN

In March, UN speical envoy to Yemen, Cheikh Ahmed, said the Kuwait talks would focus on five areas, including Houthi withdrawal from Sanaa and other cities, handing over light and heavy weapons to the government, setting temporary security measures, restoring the state institutions and ministries to the government, establishing a committee on political prisoners and resumption of a comprehensive political dialogue.

However, major differences remain as the two sides work on draft negotiation papers for the talks.

Houthi spokesman Abdulsalam, for his part, denied that his group has agreed to negotiate those five topics, reiterating the Houthi demand that a new national unity government be formed to manage a transitional period.

HEAVY WEAPONS A KEY STICKING POINT

Furthermore, Abdulsalam said there was no clear consensus on the handover of heavy weapons.

President Hadi's information advisor, Nasr Taha Mustafa, said the Houthis believe that their political and social influence hinges on their armed presence, but the requirement of the handover of light and heavy weapons was based on UN Resolution 2216.

"This is really a main problem for the upcoming peace talks, not only for Yemenis who are appealing for a political solution and an end to the war, but for the region, especially the neighboring Gulf states which seek to help reestablish the stability and security of Yemen," Mustafa said in an article carried earlier this week by pro-government local media outlets.

For the Saudis, the issue of heavy weaponry such as ballistic missiles is an important one.

Since the war began in March 2015, Saudi forces have reportedly intercepted five ballistic missiles fired from inside Yemen onto Saudi border cities. Endit