Yemen’s president, Houthi rebels agree to weeklong ceasefire

President Hadi hailed the stances of Jordan in support of his country as well as its participation in the Saudi-led Arab Alliance to restore security, stability and legitimacy and put an end to the Houthis and Saleh coup.

A ceasefire in Yemen is set to begin Monday at midnight on the eve of UN-brokered peace talks in Switzerland, a government delegate at the negotiations told AFP.

United Nations envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said this week that Riyadh had promised to observe the ceasefire and pause its aerial assault on rebel positions during talks.

Meanwhile, as the Houthi delegation prepared to depart for Geneva, Mohammed Abdel Salam, the spokesman of the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, confirmed the ceasefire at a live news conference in San’a, saying the following.

“The Saudi Arabia-led coalition launched a series of unlawful air strikes on schools being used for educational – not for military – purposes, a flagrant violation of the laws of war”, said Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International who recently returned from Yemen.

But coalition strikes and clashes between loyalists and Houthi militiamen intensified across several parts of Yemen on Saturday, military sources said.

Amnesty says the strikes were unlawful because they targeted civilian objects and “disproportionately harmed civilians and civilian objects in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack, ” as well as failing “to distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives”. “They are trying to make gains on the ground during this period”.

The Arab coalition has accused the Houthis, who are mainly drawn from the Shi’ite Zaydi sect and who control the capital Sanaa, of using civilian buildings to store weapons.

In early September, a rebel missile strike on a coalition base in Yemen’s eastern Marib province killed 67 coalition soldiers, a lot of them Emiratis.

Attempts by pro-Hadi forces to retake the strategic province of Taez have also failed as fighting rages with little or no change on the ground. “On top of enduring a bitter conflict, they face longer term upheaval and disruption to their education – a potentially lifelong burden that they will be forced to shoulder”.

Internationally recognized Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi informed the United Nations and the command of a Saudi-led coalition that he will announce an “extendable” seven-day humanitarian cease-fire on December 15 to coincide with U.N.-facilitated peace talks in Switzerland.

But with Yemen so divided and its political classes polarised, few in the country expect the Geneva talks to hammer out a political transition and even pausing the daily killings would be considered a major accomplishment.

Both sides of the civil war that has killed almost 6,000 people in Yemen had agreed to halt aggression and later proceed to positive and serious dialogue.