ADEN: Iran would submit a four-point peace plan for Yemen to the United Nations on Wednesday, Iranian state media said on Tuesday.

Tehran’s proposal includes a call for an end to Saudi-led air strikes against the Houthi rebels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking in Madrid on Tuesday, said Tehran’s peace initiative involved a ceasefire, humanitarian assistance, a dialogue between Yemeni factions and a broad-based government.

“This issue should be resolved by the Yemenis. Iran and Saudi Arabia need to talk but we cannot talk to determine the future of Yemen,” he told a news conference.

Arab states have been bombing the Houthis for three weeks in support of militias resisting an advance by the rebel group and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

After prolonged street fighting, Houthi fighters withdrew from Aden’s Khor Maksar district, where the international airport and foreign missions are located.

The pull-out deprives the Houthis of a bridge to downtown areas where they face heavy resistance from local fighters.

Southern militia sources said they wrested control of an army base loyal to the Houthis after heavy fighting on Monday night near the Balhaf liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, in southern Shabwa province on the Arabian Sea.

Yemen LNG, the company managing the facility, said it had halted production due to insecurity and was evacuating staff. The plant was intact and its surrounding area secure, it said.

Fifteen soldiers fleeing homeward from the base near Balhaf were captured and stabbed to death outside the nearby city of Ataq, a local official said. The attack was claimed by Al Qaeda.

Militiamen said their fighters had killed around 40 Houthis and allied soldiers in the southern province of Dhalea over the past day, although this could not be independently confirmed.

In the southern town of Houta in Lahej province, fighters said they attacked a Houthi tank with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns on Monday night, killing about 15 rebels. Weeks of street battles have left parts of once thriving Aden in ruins and led to shortages of water, food and electricity.

But armed townspeople say they have laid siege to pockets of Houthi and army fighters loyal to Saleh, forcing them to surrender in the dozens after running out of supplies. Mosque loudspeakers blared appeals for fighters to surrender.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2015

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