A new round of UN-brokered Yemeni peace talks could be held by the end of this month in Kuwait, a Yemeni government official said yesterday.
The talks would be accompanied by a ceasefire in the war-torn country where a Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign in support of the internationally-recognised government one year ago, said the official who requested anonymity.
Yemen’s warring parties who met with UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed last week have agreed on “the principle of holding a new round of talks in late March in Kuwait”, the official said.
Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi, on a visit to Doha, later said the government would attend the talks.
On Sunday, the UN envoy wrote on his Facebook page that he held “positive and constructive talks” in rebel-held Sanaa with the Iran-backed Houthis and their allies - supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“Preparations are ongoing for the next round of peace talks on Yemen,” he wrote, without giving a specific date or location.
A resumption of talks must be accompanied by a “week-long truce that could be renewed if respected”, he said, adding that discussions should focus on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216.
The resolution states that the rebels must withdraw from seized territories and disarm, before peace talks can progress.
Speaking at the Al Jazeera Forum in Qatar yesterday, Mekhlafi said the government was willing to negotiate.
“We are going to go to these peace talks and ... we are hopeful that we are going to reach a solution,” he told the conference, speaking in Arabic.
Mekhlafi added that his government “never chose war” and praised the Saudi-led coalition, of which Qatar is a member.
Last Wednesday, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri said that the alliance was at “the end of the major combat phase”, raising hopes of a possible relaunch of peace talks.
Kuwait is a member of the nine-nation coalition.
Previous UN-sponsored negotiations between rebels and government officials failed to reach a breakthrough, and the most recent round ended in acrimony in December.
The World Health Organisation says fighting in Yemen has killed almost 6,300 people over the past year and the UN has warned of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.
Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, supporting forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, hold a position during clashes with Shia Houthi rebels west of the city of Taiz yesterday. Since March 19, fighting has raged in the outskirts of Taiz as rebels try to retake positions lost in recent weeks to loyalists.