Date: Feb 8, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Warring parties agree compromise on Hodeida pullback UNITED NATIONS / AMMAN / RABAT: Yemen’s government and Houthi rebels have agreed on a preliminary compromise for redeploying their forces from the port city of Hodeida, the United Nations said Thursday, shoring up a truce deal that marks the first step toward ending the devastating war. The pullback from Hodeida was initially agreed under the cease-fire deal reached in December in Sweden. But deadlines for both sides to move their forces away from the ports and parts of city were missed. After three rounds of talks aboard a U.N. vessel in Hodeida’s inner harbor, a proposal was put forward by Danish Gen. Michael Lollesgaard, who heads a U.N. observer mission, “that proved acceptable, in principle,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. “A preliminary compromise was agreed, pending further consultation by the parties with their respective leaders,” he added. The two sides are to meet again next week to finalize details for the redeployment if the compromise is endorsed by the Houthi and government leadership. The cease-fire and the redeployment of forces agreed in Stockholm have been hailed as a major step toward ending Yemen’s nearly 4-year-old war that has left millions on the brink of famine. U.N. officials, however, have warned the peace gains are fragile. The first phase of the redeployment from the ports of Hodeida, Saleef, Ras Isa and from parts of the city where there are humanitarian facilities was scheduled to happen two weeks after the cease-fire went into force on Dec. 18. But that deadline was missed as the government and Houthis haggled over the interpretation of the agreement. While there was some progress on the pullback of forces, U.N. efforts to gain access to a food storage site in Hodeida that could feed millions of Yemenis hit a wall. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said in a statement Thursday that the U.N. and its humanitarian partners were scaling up to reach 12 million people with emergency food, a 50 percent increase over 2018 targets. He said the Red Sea Mills in a government-controlled area of Hodeida had enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month, but the U.N. had been unable to gain access since September while the grain possibly spoiled in silos. He deplored that last month two silos were hit by mortar bombs and the resulting fire destroyed some grain, “probably enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people for a month.” Lowcock said the Houthis had refused to authorize the U.N. to cross front lines into government-controlled areas to access the Red Sea Mills, citing security concerns. Talks are continuing with both sides and Lowcock implored the Houthis and their affiliates “to finalize an agreement and facilitate access to the mills in the coming days.” As progress was made on Hodeida, the Houthis said Thursday talks on a U.N.-sponsored prisoner swap could drag on for months if the Yemeni government denied the existence of thousands of Houthi fighters in captivity. Delegates in two rounds of talks in Amman have been struggling to come with a final list of detainees after verifying an initial one they exchanged in Sweden that had around 15,000 people. Abdul-Qader Murtada, who heads the Houthi delegation, said the government side had accounted for only a tenth of a total of 7,500 of Houthi prisoners held in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. “If the other side remains in its intransigent position of denying the presence of our prisoners, the talks will drag on for months,” Murtada told Reuters on the sidelines of the current round of discussions, which began Tuesday. The Houthis have in turn recognized only 3,600 from an original list of 9,500 names submitted by the government side of their detainees, saying over 4,000 names were either fake, duplicate names or of prisoners who had been released, he added.Murtada also said they had “tens” of captive Saudi military personnel in their jails, some of whom were high-ranking and whose release would only take place if all their prisoners were released. “The Saudis are tied to the fate of the Yemenis as a whole and we reject entering into negotiations with them except over a deal that involves all our prisoners,” he said. The Yemeni government’s backers have not commented on the course of the prisoner swap talks.