Yemen"s information minister dismissed the Houthis" withdrawal announcement, accusing them of "a policy of deception" The governor of Hodeidah, Al-Hasan Taher, said Saturday the Houthis were merely reshuffling personnel CAIRO: The UN says it is monitoring the redeployment of Houthi forces from three key ports in Yemen after the government dismissed the withdrawal as a “farce.” Lt. Gen. Michael Lollesgaard, the head of a UN mission monitoring the cease-fire in Hodeidah, said Sunday that monitors will verify the Houthi withdrawal from the ports of Hodeida, Salif and Ras-Issa on Tuesday. The Houthis say they began withdrawing on Saturday, in line with a long-delayed agreement reached in in December. Both sides agreed to withdraw from Hodeidah, which handles 70 percent of Yemen’s food imports and humanitarian aid, but remain divided over who will administer the ports after they leave. The pullback is considered a first step in implementing a hard-won truce agreement for Hodeidah struck in Sweden in December between Yemen"s internationally recognised government and the Iran-backed Houthis. Yemen"s information minister dismissed the Houthis" withdrawal announcement, accusing them of "a policy of deception." "What the Houthi militia did is a repeated theatrical play of handing over control of the port to its own forces (in different uniforms)," Moammer Al-Eryani tweeted. "This shows its continued manipulation and evasion to implement the Sweden agreement... by adopting a policy of deception." The governor of Hodeidah, Al-Hasan Taher, said Saturday the Houthis were merely reshuffling personnel. "The Houthis are staging a new ploy by handing over the ports of Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Issa to themselves without any monitoring by the United Nations and the government side," said the official. "This is totally rejected by us, and the agreement must be implemented in full, especially with regards to the identity of the troops that will take over from the Houthis," he added.