A soldier walks at Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen.

:: Saudi Arabia on Thursday proposed that vital food and medicine relief aid for Yemen be shipped through the countrys Jizan port on the Red Sea to avoid Yemen’s rebel-controlled Hodeidah port.

Dr. Abdullah al-Rabeeah, head of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, said Houthi rebel militia are holding up relief materials in Hodeidah, preventing them from getting to Yemenis suffering after three years of war.

Instead, he said, they are mainly letting through building materials, cars and trucks. When they do allow a cargo of food or medical supplies through, he said the militia controlling the port are charging relief agencies as much as $100,000 to offload a vessel.

Jizan, located about 260 kilometers north of Hodeidah, “is far closer to Saada and the north (of Yemen) than Hodeidah,” Rabeeah told journalists in Washington.

“Although we would like to see Hodeidah to full capacity, until that happens we should use the maximum available ports, whether they are from Yemen, from Saudi Arabia, or land ports.”

On Tuesday, a coalition spokesman said that 15 cargo ships carrying food and fuel and authorized by the coalition to enter the port were still waiting to dock due to stalling by the rebels.

More control

Putting the shipments through a Saudi port like Jizan would give Riyadh more control over the flow of aid to Yemen.

Yemen is entering its fourth year of fighting between the Houthi rebels who control the capital and a Saudi-led coalition.

Millions of Yemenis have been displaced by the fighting which has pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.

However, he said the coalition is now honoring a total of 43,000 “non-strike-zones” identified by United Nations organizations and non-governmental relief groups.

“We have worked very closely with our humanitarian agencies and also with the coalition forces to ensure that civilian targets, schools and hospitals, are well-protected by non-strike zones.”