Yemeni government delegation halts participation in peace talks over truce breaches

A delegation of Yemen's internationally recognized government decided on Sunday to suspend its participation in the Kuwait-based peace talks with the Shiite Houthi group, citing cease-fire breaches, well-informed sources said.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik Mekhlafi, who heads the government delegation to the talks, has officially informed UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of the decision, the sources, close to Yemen's Saudi Arabia-based government, told Xinhua.

The cease-fire came into force on April 10 and was supposed to pave the way for the Kuwait peace talks, but both warring sides have complained of violations by each other, along with continuing heavy shelling and airstrikes.

On Saturday, fighters of the Shiite Houthi group stormed a key military base allied with Yemen's legitimate government in the country's northern province of Amran and seized heavy weapons.

A pro-government journalist told Xinhua that Kuwait's foreign minister and other GCC officials held a meeting with the Yemeni delegation in a bid to bring them back to the negotiations table with the Houthis.

The delegation will remain in Kuwait for consultations with the UN envoy, not with Houthis, the Kuwait-based journalist told Xinhua over phone.

The UN envoy said on Saturday that "there are positive signs of political understanding but we haven't overcome all obstacles yet."

He added that "a war that lasted for over a year can't be resolved in one day. Any rushed solution will be fragile and short-lived."

On Tuesday, delegations of the two warring Yemeni parties moved a step forward and agreed to a pre-approved agenda for the UN-facilitated peace talks held in Kuwait following mounting pressures from the international community and regional powers including the Kuwaiti emir.

The Kuwaiti emir held on Tuesday separate meetings with Yemen's warring factions and succeeded in giving a breakthrough and a boost to the stalled talks that were suspended for two days.

The Houthi group and pro-former President Al Abdullah Saleh militias stormed the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September 2014, and forced Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to exile.

The Yemeni factions started a new round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait on April 21, raising hope after a year of armed conflicts that have led to catastrophic consequences.

The previous two rounds were held in June and December of 2015, but failed to yield any progress.

The UN envoy to Yemen announced in press conferences in Kuwait that the talks are based on the UN Security Council resolution 2216 and the outcome of previous talks in Geneva.

The resolution calls on the Houthi group to cede power to the internationally recognized government, disarm and withdraw from cities to establish permanent peace and resume the political process.

It is also hoped that the latest talks would end a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which has so far claimed more than 6,400 lives, over half of them civilians, and displaced millions, according to UN statistics.

The crisis in Yemen started in 2011, when former President Saleh was forced to step down from his 33-year rule, as part of a wave of protests and political turmoil that swept the whole Arab world.

Source: XINHUA