Date: Jul 16, 2019
Source: The Daily Star
Yemen's warring sides meet over flashpoint port city
Associated Press
SANAA: Yemen's warring sides have met for the first time in five months to discuss redeployment of forces from the flashpoint port city of Hodeida.

Wadah Dabish, a spokesman for the forces loyal to the internationally recognized government, says the meeting took place late Sunday abroad a U.N. vessel.

Lt. Gen. Michael Lollesgaard, head of the U.N. mission in Hodeida, led the meeting. Al-Masirah TV, run by rebel Houthis who are fighting government forces, also reported the meeting.

The sides met last in February.

Under a December cease-fire agreement, government forces and the Houthis were to redeploy their forces from Hodeida, something considered an important first step toward ending the civil war.

The government accuses the Houthis of sidestepping the truce deal by handing their positions over to allied fighters.