Jemen

Houthi forces denied the United Nations access to a grain storage site in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Tuesday, sources familiar with the matter said, hindering efforts to increase food aid to millions facing severe hunger. Hodeidah is the entry point for most of Yemen's humanitarian aid and commercial imports.

Yemen's warring parties exchanged heavy weapons fire overnight in Hodeidah, residents and military sources said, as the United Nations scrambled to salvage a ceasefire deal in the Yemeni port city that is a lifeline for millions at risk of starvation. The clashes were the heaviest since the ceasefire went into effect on Dec. 18, residents said, and came as the United Nations announced a deal setting out details of a mutual military withdrawal envisaged by the Stockholm truce accord.

Yemen’s Houthi group said they were building their ballistic capabilities and their forces stand ready to strike Riyadh and Abu Dhabi if implementation of a U.N. peace deal in the port city of Hodeidah is breached.

The bipartisan bill to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen will now move to the House of Representatives, where it's likely to pass. However, President Trump has vowed to veto the resolution.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council urged Yemen's warring parties on Tuesday to implement a peace deal in the port city of Hodeidah, a move they hope will lead to an end of the four-year-old conflict. The Chinese, French, Russian, British and U.S. ambassadors to Yemen said in a statement they were "extremely concerned" that the agreement reached in Stockholm in December had not been implemented.

The United Nations regained access to a grains facility near Yemen's Hodeidah port on Tuesday, potentially allowing an increase in food aid to millions at risk of starvation after years of devastating war, humanitarian officials said.

A peace deal in Yemen's main port city appears to have stalled again despite UN efforts to salvage the pact intended to clear the way for wider negotiations to end the devastating four-year war, sources involved in the discussions said. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres admitted at a pledging conference in Geneva on Tuesday -- which has raised $2.6 billion of the $4 billion being sought for Yemen -- that progress has been slow in implementing a troop withdrawal in Hodeidah, a lifeline for millions facing famine.

“Significant progress” is being made in implementing the deal reached in Stockholm last December between Government and Houthi leaders in Yemen, according to United Nations Special Envoy Martin Griffiths.

This is Crisis Group’s third weekly update. … The trend we identify in this edition is new hope for a political compromise to end the four-year-old civil war and ease the country’s grave humanitarian crisis.

Yemen’s warring parties agreed a UN-brokered ceasefire for the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah back in December but, seven weeks on, deadlines have come and gone and much of the accord has still not taken hold.