Representatives from both sides in the Yemen conflict met on a ship on the Red Sea on Sunday in a UN-led push to implement a stalled troop withdrawal from Yemen's main port of Hodeida as agreed at December peace talks, a UN official said. The United Nations is overseeing the implementation of a ceasefire and troop withdrawal accord in Hodeida, the main entry point for most of Yemen's imports, in the hope it will lead to a political solution to the almost four-year war. Retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert chaired the meeting aboard a UN vessel docked off the coast of the flashpoint city of Hodeida after the rebels refused to hold talks in government-held areas. Sunday's meeting was the third time the UN-led Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) convened since it was formed in December, bringing together the Houthis with the internationally recognized Yemeni government and UN mediators. The parties met on a UN ship because attempts to convene the third meeting in territory held by coalition forces failed because the Houthis were unwilling to cross the frontline, sources have told Reuters. The vessel picked up a delegation from Yemen's internationally recognized government at an offshore meeting point in the Red Sea before sailing to Hodeida to pick up the Houthi delegation, a UN statement said on Saturday. The spokesman for the Yemeni government's delegation to the RCC, Sadiq Dweid, told Reuters the committee had discussed Patrick Cammaert's proposals for the troop withdrawal at Sunday's meeting. "The meetings will continue," he said. The truce has largely held in Hodeida, but clashes have increased in recent weeks and the UN Yemen Envoy Martin Griffiths has urged all parties to reduce tensions. Violence has continued in other parts of the country not subject to the deal. — Agencies
