UN Seeks Extension of Faltering Yemen Peace Talks
by VOA News July 30, 2016
A special U.N. envoy asked Yemen's warring parties to extend peace negotiations for another week, after the Sana'a government said Saturday that it would withdraw from the talks.
The call from envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed included what he described as a framework for a solution to nearly two years of fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Shi'ite rebels. Monitors say at least 6,500 people have been killed, including more than 3,200 civilians.
"I met with both delegations [and] suggested a one-week extension," the envoy wrote on Twitter. There was no immediate response from the government or from Houthi rebel leaders, whose negotiators have faced off in Kuwait since April in a renewed search for a peace deal.
The withdrawal announcement came two days after Houthi leaders backing former President Ali Abdullah Saleh said they were forming a coalition administration, in a widely viewed attempt to legitimize Houthi rule.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon immediately criticized the Houthi move, saying the "unilateral decision was not in line with the peace process and endangered substantial progress" he said had been made in the Kuwait talks.
The U.N. sponsored two rounds of peace talks last year – neither successful – with Kuwait talks in December crumbling under the weight of an outbreak of fierce fighting.
For its part, the government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi has demanded that rebels withdraw from all territories seized since the conflict erupted in September 2014, when Houthi fighters took control of Sana'a after years of complaints of government discrimination.
A Houthi offensive in southern Yemen later sent Hadi into a months-long exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia. The Saudis responded by forming a regional coalition of Sunni governments, which last year began launching airstrikes in defense of Hadi's presidency.
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