UN’s Yemen envoy announces one-month recess for peace talks

Kuwait, proving its leading role in worldwide scene by always calling for peace and extending a helping hand for the needy, hosted inter-Yemeni negotiations which concluded Friday after over 90 days of marathon talks. “These do not serve the Yemeni people or the peace process”.

The statement will also highlight that peace talks will resume in another round, reaffirming the envoy’s determination to preserve his previous suggestions which stipulate the need to stop fighting, release hostages and facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid.

“We wanted to have a sustainable and lasting peace agreement”, said Ould Cheikh Ahmed who on Wednesday briefed the UN Security Council about the talks.

Among them are Salah al-Sammad, head of the Huthis’ political wing Ansarullah, and Sadek Abu Ras, deputy head of Saleh’s General People’s Congress.

That condition amounts to an explicit call for the removal of the internationally recognised president, Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

“We may not have arrived at a [peace] announcement before departing Kuwait, but I repeat that we are on the right track”, Ould Cheikh Ahmed added.

Shiite Huthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdallah Saleh on Saturday appointed a council set up to govern Yemen, in a new blow to UN-mediated peace talks.

It was the third round of negotiations to fail to end a bloody armed conflict in the impoverished Arab nation that the UN says has so far killed at least 6,400 people.

The draft plan called on the rebels to withdraw from territory they had occupied and give up heavy weapons seized from the army.

The Iran-backed Huthis overran the capital in late 2014 before moving into other parts of Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March a year ago.

The presidency of the body, the Supreme Political Council, would alternate between the two sides.

The plan was presented as the UN’s final proposal to resolve the 16-month conflict.

“We have launched a military operation to regain what remains of Naham (province) and advance on Sanaa”, said military spokesman Mohsen Kasruf.

The U.N. sponsored two rounds of peace talks past year, but those efforts collapsed in January under the weight of an outbreak of fierce combat that lasted for weeks.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south – including provisional capital Aden – but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.