New Yemen peace talks to begin next week

The special UN envoy for Yemen said Thursday that the country's government and Huthi Shiite rebels agreed to participate in peace talks that "will convene in the region next week."

The talks will touch on "a cease-fire and the resumption of a peaceful political transition," Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.

Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by conflict since March, when a Saudi-led Arab coalition launched air strikes against Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels.

The discussions are aimed "at creating a framework for an agreement" on a UN mechanism that would see the Houthis withdraw from territories that they have conquered.

The mediator urged "the participants in the talks to engage constructively and in good faith, recognizing the need or a rapid end to the violence which has brought intolerable levels of suffering to the Yemeni people."

The conflict in Yemen has claimed nearly 4,500 lives since late March, according to the UN.

Cheikh Ahmed also applauded "the decision of Yemeni President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and other Yemeni parties to attend the talks," for which a date and time have yet to be set.

The United Nations has called repeatedly for a ceasefire in Yemen, but talks in Geneva in June collapsed without the warring parties ever sitting down in the same room.

Cheikh Ahmed spoke Thursday afternoon by videoconference from Riyadh to Security Council ambassadors during closed-door consultations.

The council called on  all Yemeni parties to participate without preconditions and in good faith, according to text obtained by AFP.

Source: AFP