UN ENVOY SAYS DATE FOR YEMEN PEACE TALKS TO BE SET SOON

New York, 11 Muharram 1437/24 October 2015 (MINA) –  UN’s special envoy for Yemen said Friday that he would immediately start working with the country’s warring parties on “the agenda, date and format” for face-to-face talks.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed confirmed to the Security Council that both the government and Houthi rebels consented to send delegations to peace talks, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

He added that the negotiations would be held on the basis of a framework stipulated by the Security Council in a resolution adopted in April, calling for the withdrawal of Houthis from territory and government institutions they had seized.

“We will soon be in a position to announce the location and the date, but it’s going to happen very soon,” Ahmed told reporters following his briefing to the council.

More than 5,500 people have been killed in Yemen since March, according to UN figures. The conflict pitted Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh against the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, which was backed by an air campaign launched in March by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies.

Previous attempts at peace talks failed, with Iran-allied Houthis refusing to withdraw from areas they have seized since September last year.

“Yemen is ablaze and the Yemeni population finds itself in a catastrophic situation. The country is bleeding and its cities collapsing,” Ahmed said.

He said there are more than 21 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian aid, which constitutes 80 percent of the population. Some 20 million lack access to safe drinking water and the number of severely malnourished children exceeds 500,000, he said. (T/P010/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)