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Draft UN Resolution Calls for Cease-Fire in Key Yemen Port City

Draft UN Resolution Calls for Cease-Fire in Key Yemen Port City

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. submitted a draft proposal to the United Nations Security Council on Monday calling for a cessation of hostilities in the key Yemeni port city of Hodeida and for the parties to the conflict to return to peace talks swiftly.

The draft resolution, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News, calls on all sides to cease attacks on densely populated civilian areas across Yemen and to stop missile and drone attacks against “regional countries and maritime areas.” It also urged the parties to participate in talks in Sweden in the coming weeks without preconditions.

The Yemen conflict has drawn increasing international scrutiny and criticism, much of it directed at the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting rebels believed to have ties to Iran, as the threat of famine rises and the UN says the crisis has become the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The U.S. recently said it would stop refueling coalition aircraft engaged in the war, and President Donald Trump this month called the conflict a “horror show,” singling out the bombing of a school bus that killed children.

Fighting in Hodeida has intensified in recent weeks as the Saudi-led coalition led an offensive against the Houthis. The port is where much of the aid and imports flow through to Yemen, and the draft resolution calls on all parties to the conflict to facilitate the flow of commercial and humanitarian food, water, fuel, medicine and other essential imports.

No date has been set yet for the Security Council to debate the resolution.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Wainer in New York at dwainer3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu

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