A hard-won ceasefire in Yemen's battleground city of Hodeida will collapse if rebel violations persist and the United Nations does not intervene, the Saudi-led coalition backing the government warned Wednesday. Underscoring still-simmering tensions, the coalition said it launched an air strike at the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, destroying a drone that was being prepared for take-off.
It was the first air raid the alliance has confirmed carrying out at the airport since peace talks last week in Sweden that resulted in the Hodeida ceasefire accord. A breakdown of the truce would risk a renewed coalition offensive and a halt to humanitarian operations at the city's vital Red Sea port.
UN observers are due in Yemen to head up monitoring teams made up of government and rebel representatives tasked with overseeing the implementation of the UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday. The UN Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee will convene its first meeting by videoconference from New York on Wednesday before heading to Yemen "later this week", UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Hodeida residents reached by telephone said there was complete calm in the port city on Wednesday following intermittent gunfire during the night.
But the Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting alongside the government since March 2015, complained of repeated rebel breaches since the truce went into effect.
"A total of 21 violations since ceasefire commencement have come to our notice," a coalition source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"If the UN continues to drag the chain and take too long to get into the (military) theatre, they will lose the opportunity altogether... and the agreement will turn a dead duck," the source said in English.
"We will continue to give them the benefit of the doubt and show restraint but early indicators are not promising."
The rebels, in turn, accused pro-government forces of violating the truce. The rebel-run Saba news agency said loyalist forces targeted several areas of the city and its surrounding province overnight.
Later, however, the rebels reiterated their commitment to the Hodeida ceasefire.
A UN official, who requested anonymity, said the truce "was holding despite reports of skirmishes".
Britain said on Wednesday it was putting forward a UN Security Council resolution to be voted on later this week.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the resolution would endorse the terms of the agreement, authorise the UN "to monitor their implementation" and set out "urgent steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis".
The observers of the Redeployment Coordination Committee are due to oversee the withdrawal of the warring parties from the city, including a rebel pullout from the city's docks that are the point of entry for 80 percent of Yemeni imports and nearly all UN-supervised humanitarian aid.
The committee chair is expected to report to the Security Council on a weekly basis as part of a major diplomatic push that is seen as the best chance yet to end the four-year conflict.