Al-Mashat: If aggression does not abide by truce, Yemeni forces ready

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Mahdi Al-Mashat, the head of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, said on Saturday that the Yemeni Armed Forces are ready to perform their duty in case the aggression does not abide by its commitments according to the UN-brokered truce.

Al-Mashat condemned the Saudi-led aggression's violations of the truce, whereby they sent surveillance flights to the Yemeni capital and a number of other governorates, describing this as a blatant violation of the truce and an act of aggression that goes completely against their claims to seek peace.

He further stressed the need for the aggression to abide by the truce in its entirety in order to lessen the suffering of the Yemeni people.

Al-Mashat met with the Deputy PM for Defense and Security, Jalal Al-Rowaishan, Defense Minister Major General Mohammad Naser Al-Atefi, and the Chairman of the General Staff Major General Mohammad Abdel-Karim Al-Ghemari, where they discussed Yemen's military and security situation, in addition to the course of the current truce.

Earlier on Saturday, Yemen's Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Ezzi said that the Aden government refused to open roads in other governorates, insisting only on Taiz, in violation of the truce, adding that yesterday, the government's military committee came forward with the initiative of opening two major roads in Taiz and sought to discuss opening other roads in other governorates, in accordance with the truce.

UN envoy calls for extension of truce

The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, called on Tuesday for extending the armistice between the Saudi-led coalition and the Sanaa government, which is set to expire in two weeks. 

At the end of a closed UN Security Council meeting, Grundberg claimed that the renewable two-month truce that went into effect in early April has made a "considerable positive impact on the daily lives of many Yemenis."

"Over the past six weeks, civilian casualties have dropped considerably, fighting has sharply reduced with no aerial attacks from Yemen across its borders and no confirmed airstrikes inside Yemen," he claimed, completely overlooking the Saudi-led violations recorded on a daily basis. 

As part of the truce, the first commercial flight in nearly six years took off on May 16 from Yemen's capital, and Grundberg said another flight was scheduled two days later, after months of the Saudi-led coalition preventing any such flights in a blatant violation of the UN-brokered humanitarian truce.