ANSD : Yemen peace talks likely in early December: Mattis

SAT 27 - 4 - 2024

Date: Nov 23, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Yemen peace talks likely in early December: Mattis

WASHINGTON/SANAA: U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that peace talks between Yemen’s warring parties are likely to take place in early December in Sweden.

U.N. Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council Friday that Yemen’s parties have given “firm assurances” they are committed to attending peace talks he hopes to convene in Sweden before the end of the year.

“It looks like very, very early in December, up in Sweden we’ll see both the Houthi rebel side and the U.N recognized government,” Mattis told reporters.

An attempt to hold peace talks in Geneva in September was abandoned after three days of waiting for the Houthi delegation.

Mattis also said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had ceased offensive operations around Yemen’s key port city of Hodeida and despite some fighting, the front lines had not changed in at least 72 hours.

Griffiths was in Yemen’s capital Sanaa Wednesday and was due to visit Hodeida Thursday, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Hodeida port handles 80 percent of the country’s food imports and aid supplies.

“He seeks to finalize the arrangements in the lead-up to the talks in Sweden and to revisit a U.N. supervisory role for the port and to draw attention to the continued need for a pause in the fighting,” Dujarric said.

“Griffiths faces the sternest test of his young tenure,” Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group said.

“If his mediation efforts succeed in preventing a destructive battle for Hodeida, he could build momentum toward reviving a peace process.” Both warring sides have in the past week expressed support for the envoy’s mission to convene new talks, but clashes flared again in Hodeida Tuesday.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday that its teams had treated over 500 wounded people since Nov. 1 and that it remained “extremely worried for its patients and staff threatened by fighting very close” to its facilities in Hodeida.

The World Health Organization says nearly 10,000 people mostly civilians have been killed in Yemen since the Arab coalition intervention began.

Human rights groups believe the real toll may be five times higher.

Save the Children said Wednesday that based on U.N. figures, between March 2015 and this October some 85,000 children under five may have died of severe malnutrition or related diseases.

Britain Monday presented to the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution urging an immediate truce in Hodeida and setting a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove barriers to humanitarian aid.

“The only solution is for all the parties to set aside their arms, cease missile and air attacks on populated areas and pursue a peaceful political settlement,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Parliament Wednesday.

Hunt said the draft resolution was “designed to get a consensus from both sides that allow talks to start before the end of this month in Stockholm.

Readers Comments (0)

Add your comment

Enter the security code below*


Can't read this? Try Another.