ANSD : Yemen says waiting for peace talks invite

MON 25 - 11 - 2024

Date: Aug 16, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Yemen says waiting for peace talks invite

GENEVA/SANAA: Yemen’s ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday that his government had not yet been invited to peace talks planned for next month, but that it was open to attending despite low prospects for success. “We are waiting for the invitation,” Yemen’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Majawar, told reporters.

The U.N.’s peace envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths told the Security Council earlier this month that he wants to host warring parties in the Swiss city on Sept. 6.

A Yemeni government source, who requested anonymity, told AFP on Aug. 3 that it would attend.

Majawar underscored that in the two weeks since Griffiths announced the talks, the U.N. has not shared any details, including on the crucial issue of whether the government and rebels would be asked to meet face-to-face.

The government is waiting for clarity from Griffiths “on the mechanism and contents of the consultations,” Majawar said.

“In my personal opinion, they will be very difficult consultations. ... We don’t think the Houthis will make any compromises to help the talks to go forward,” he added.

The war in Yemen has triggered what the U.N. has described as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since March 2015 when an Arab coalition intervened in the country to support President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi’s government against the Houthis.

While all sides have been accused of major violations, global outrage in recent days has focused on the coalition after it carried out an airstrike on a bus that killed 51 people, including, 40 children, and wounded 79 others, including 56 children, in the rebel-held north.

Two U.N. officials visited children wounded in the airstrike on the busy Dahyan market in Saada province.

Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said the airstrike was a “tragedy” that could never be justified.

Meritxell Relano, of the U.N. children’s agency, said the “very shocking” attack would leave the children with physical and psychological wounds.

Key coalition ally the United Arab Emirates said Monday that the child deaths were a manifestation of the “ugly” side of war for which both sides were to blame and played up the coalition’s own investigation into the strike.

“Unfortunately, this is really part of any confrontation,” the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said, adding that those calling for independent investigations should instead urge tighter rules of engagement.

The last attempt at U.N.-brokered talks broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government.

Gargash said he hoped the Geneva talks signaled the start of a process that would lead to a political solution to the conflict, which is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe Iran.

Separately, fighting between two pro-government factions in the southwestern city of Taiz has killed 18 people on both sides in the past two days, Yemeni officials said Tuesday. The officials said the fighting pits forces loyal to Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar against those loyal to Abou al-Abbas, a militia commander. Both are part of the Arab coalition.

The officials said Amin Mahmoud, the governor of Taiz, survived a roadside bomb targeting his convoy in the southern port city of Aden. It was unclear whether the attempted assassination was related to the violence in Taiz.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to reporters.

The number of assassinations and bombings in Aden has increased dramatically despite the presence of the Yemeni president and his government in the southern coastal city.

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