Sana'a (Debriefer) - The Houthi group renewed on Wednesday its call on the UN to press for opening the Sana'a international airport for commercial flights.
The Saudi-led coalition has been imposing blockade on commercial flights to and fro Sana'a airport since early August 2016, accusing the Houthis of smuggling arms and persons via the facility.
Yemenis from northern and western provinces, who want to travel abroad, have to take up to 15 hours in land trip to the city of Aden or Seyoun in Hadhramout where the airports provide limited flights abroad.
Sana'a airport has proven its technical and operational preparedness to receive all civil flights, the Houthi-run transport ministry said in a statement, citing the air bridge to airlift prisoners under the swap deal on 15 and 16 October.
When the planes transported and brought the captives under the ICRC supervision, aircrafts of the UN and international agencies and cargo planes arrived at and left the airport that provided all of them with technical services as internationally required by ICAO, it added.
"We call anew on the UN, ICAO, international community and rights groups to strongly press on the coalition to lift the block imposed on Sana'a international airport," the statement read.
Yemen has been racked by an armed conflict that broke out after the Iranian-backed Houthis had ousted the UN-recognized government late in 2014.
The conflict escalated after a Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily in the country in March 2015 to reinstate the government of President Hadi, triggering what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
