The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen held a massive military parade in the strategic port city of Hodeidah on Thursday – a display the United Nations found most unseemly, especially since the U.N.-brokered peace plan for Yemen is named after Hodeidah, and the plan specifically calls for the city to be kept free of “military manifestations.”
UNMHA, the United Nations Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement, said it was “deeply concerned” by the Houthi display of arms.
“It is essential that every effort is made to ensure protection of the local population through full implementation of the Agreement,” the mission said.
The Hodeidah Agreement, which dates back to early 2019, was intended to build a durable cease-fire between the Houthi insurgents and Yemeni government by demilitarizing Hodeidah and two other key port cities. Sporadic fighting continued to erupt for control of the strategic Hodeidah port, which is crucial for delivering humanitarian aid to Yemen is in peril from the long civil war.
The parade on Thursday was the latest provocation, an aggressive display of weapons that included mines, drones, anti-ship missiles, and waterborne improvised explosive devices – the sort of weapons the Houthis, whose name for themselves is “Ansar Allah,” have a penchant for using to attack shipping off the Yemeni coast.
The Houthis used their Al-Masirah television station to broadcast the parade, which included hundreds of troops marching in formation:
Despite the ostensible cessation of hostilities, the Houthis are currently laying siege to a southern city called Taiz. The Yemeni government is pleading with the United Nations to pressure the Houthis into halting their attack, which has included artillery bombardments of the city.
“This is a flagrant challenge to all initiatives and endeavors aimed at ending the war and achieving peace, undermines efforts to extend and expand the humanitarian truce, and seeks to impose the siege on the city of Taiz, which has already been besieged for seven years,” the government charged.