Criticizing the refusal of the Saudi-led coalition to permit the resumption of flights through Sana’a International Airport on Sunday, the minister of health of Yemen’s National Salvation Government Taha al-Mutawakkil told al-Masirah that postponing permission for the first flight to Sana’a by the [Saudi-led] coalition at the last seconds aimed at worsening the pain and suffering of the Yemeni patients.
Following a two-month UN-brokered truce which went into effect on April 2, the first flight was scheduled to arrive at Sana’a on Sunday and transport individuals in need of medical treatment to Amman, Jordan's capital city.
However, Saudi Arabia refused to issue the permit in violation of the terms of the ongoing truce.
Mutawakkil added over 30,000 Yemeni patients have been on a waiting list to receive medical treatment since three years ago but the Saudi-led coalition has rejected all proposed plans to help them.
He further rejected the Saudi media propaganda that Yemen has picked a “selected” number of individuals to leave the country, noting this will only reveal the moral collapse of the aggressive countries and cross off any reasoning to continue the closure of Sana’a airport.
According to the Yemeni minister, the Saudi-led collation is also responsible for worsening the critical health condition of the Yemeni people since it has seized vessels shipping fuel for the hospitals in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia launched a devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with the support of the United States and several Western states, to return the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to power and crush the Ansarullah Resistance movement, which has been running the country in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The coalition also has stopped the operation of the Sana’a airport since 2016 only allowing the UN and humanitarian flights.
MNA/FNA14010205000943