UAE official acknowledges 'break' in campaign for Yemen port

SANAA: The Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen has 'paused' its campaign to retake the rebel-held port city of Hodeida in support of a peace efforts, an Emirati official said on Sunday.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash acknowledged the week-old break after Yemen's warring parties agreed to restart talks with UN special envoy Martin Griffiths.

"The Coalition Has Paused the Advance on the City of Hodeida," Gargash tweeted.

The coalition launched the Hodeida offensive in June, in a bid to break a three-year stalemate in its war against the Iran-aligned rebels, known as Houthis. The fighting has been confined to the city's outskirts.

Griffiths has been talking to all sides of the world.

Around 70 percent of Yemen's imported food and medicine arrives in Hodeida, making it a vital lifeline for a country that is already on the brink of famine. The UN considers the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22 million people in need of badistance.

Aid groups fear a protracted fight for Hodeida could shut down the port and potentially tip million into starvation.

The coalition went to war with the Houthis in March 2015, hoping to restore the internationally recognized authority of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa. The government has called on the Houthis to withdraw from all areas, including a "complete and unconditional" pullout from Hodeida.

The Houthis have refused to withdraw from Hodeida, but they have not been allowed to leave the city. Griffiths said they would agree to the deal in principle, and that they would finalize the agreement.