Riyadh (Debriefer) The Houthi group exploits international pressures for renewed truce to maximize gains, Yemeni government firsthand sources said Monday, noting that Riyadh had promised to pay civil servants in Houthi-held areas.
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, is still exerting efforts to renew and expand the expired truce, the sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed website, but these efforts are faced by Houthi repeated rejections and preconditions.
The more they feel willingness from concerned parties, the further demands the Houthis add, the sources added.
"At the beginning, they asked for payment of civil servants salaries without linking them to revenues of oil arriving at Hodeida port, but after the government and Coalition agreed, the Houthis raised their demands. They're now asking for payment of their military and security forces."
Once Saudi Arabia committed itself to pay public salaries, the Houthis gave new conditions, such as "payment with old banknotes that shouldn't be through the government and delivered directly to them."
The UN envoy is now pressuring on the official government to accept the Houthi condition for paying the salaries of defense and interior ministries staff, though all of them are Houthi fighters, the sources said.
Having failed to persuade the Houthis into extending the truce, despite the government agreement to his proposal, Grundberg resorted to this matter, they added.
The UN-mediated 2-month truce took effect on 2 April, was renewed twice on 2 June and 2 August, and expired on 2 October with the UN failing to obtain Houthi agreement to further extension.