Yemen Houthis dismiss reports of limited cease-fire deal

Sanaa: Yemen’s top Houthi leader has dismissed reports of reaching a limited cease-fire deal with Saudi Arabia as a “fake news.”

“Reports by some US media outlets about reaching a partial deal with Saudi Arabia to cease fire on four areas in Yemen are rumours,” said Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, the second-in-command of the Houthi movement.

“Yemen would never accept nothing short of an all-out stop to aggression (war) and the lifting of economic blockade,” al-Houthi said in a brief statement obtained by Xinhua news agency on Friday.

The Houthis last week offered a peace initiative to Saudi Arabia, proposing a “comprehensive halt of war,” and said they unilaterally halted cross-border attacks on the kingdom as a gesture of “good will” to end war.

They offered the initiative just days after they claimed devastating missile attacks on Saudi-owned largest oil producer Aramco that knocked out half of Saudi oil outputs.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition against Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen for more than four years in support of the exiled internationally-recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.