Yemen Peace Talks Due on December 15 in Switzerland: UN
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Warring parties in Yemen have agreed to peace talks in Switzerland beginning on December 15, when a temporary ceasefire will likely be in place, the UN envoy to the country confirmed Monday.
The United Nations Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said three delegations had agreed to come to the talks, likely to be held outside of Geneva.
They include representatives of Yemeni fugitive former President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a delegation of the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and officials from the General People's Congress, who are loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Ahmed said there was no timeline for the negotiations, vowing they would last "as long as it takes."
The UN envoy added he was "almost sure" a temporary ceasefire would be in place by the time talks started, the AFP reported.
He said all sides had responded positively to the ceasefire proposal, including the Saudi-led coalition which has been bombarding Yemen in a bid to restore power to the former president Hadi.
According to the UN envoy, Riyadh said it would observe a ceasefire if Hadi backed the idea.
Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by a coalition led by the Saudi regime for more than eight months.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
According to Yemeni sources, some 7500 people have been killed in the Saudi-led aggressions so far.
