By Abdullah Abu Al-Hassan
The chairman of Yemen's "Presidential Leadership Council" Rashad Al-Alimi announced yesterday that the UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg could not persuade the Houthi militia to end the seven year siege on Taiz city.
Addressing permanent representatives in the League of Arab States in Cairo, Al-Alimi said Grunderbg "could not" persuade Houthis to "end the siege on Taiz and other provinces."
The claim that the UN envoy and international community are not able to persuade Houthis is itself not persuasive to anyone in his right mind.
The international envoys easily pressure the government to offer concession after concession to the Shia rebels who offer nothing in return.
And the excuse, as usual, is that 'Houthis cannot be persuaded".
And, militarily, we are usually told that Houthis can not be defeated!
The war on the intransigent Shia militants was by secretly vetoed international envoys under the trite pretext that "there is no military solution to the conflict in Yemen"!
Not only that. From time to time we also come across ridi.culous news that the US is moving its navy, rehearsing or testing preparedness or laser weapons in the Red Sea, "with an eye on the Houthis"!