Yemen's Minister of Information Muammar Al-Eryani said the Houthi militia's siege of Taiz continuing since the coup of 2014 has left an unprecedented misery for four million people in the central Yemeni city. In a statement to Yemeni News Agency (Saba), Al-Eryani said the siege and abuses there, " amounts to war crimes." "The continuity of Houthi siege around Taiz for six years, reveals the falsehood of the terrorist militia's presentation of itself as a campaigner against the [Coalition's] blockade, a rhetoric it employs to draw the sympathy of and mislead the international community while seeking to cover up its own despicable crimes." "Any de-escalation efforts that does not include a total and unconditional removal of the siege on Taiz and end the agony of the people of Taiz is lacking. Such effort turns its back to the agony of four million people and confirms that the international community follows a double-standard approach in tackling humanitarian issues," Eryani said. He called on the international community, the UN, the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the US and UN envoys to Yemen to "assume their legal and humanitarian obligation by forcing the Houthi militia to end the Taiz siege, and allow the travel of civilians and passage of foodstuff shipments in line with the Stockholm Agreement."
