Saudi Negotiators Evade Major Issues in Yemeni Peace Talks: Analyst
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A prominent Yemeni analyst said the Saudis involved in UN-brokered Yemen peace talks avoid addressing main issues, including sustaining the ceasefire and planning for formation of a transitional government in the Arabian Peninsula country.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Seyyed Sadiq al-Sharafi pointed to the peace talks underway in Kuwait, saying that over the past days, the Saudi negotiating team has refused to talk about the ceasefire and how to sustain it in Yemen as well as a halt to the Saudi-led coalition’s air strikes and ground advances by their mercenaries.
“The Saudi negotiating group is not willing to talk about serious and fundamental issues or develop a political solution and plan for formation of a transitional government after the ceasefire,” he stated.
Earlier, Hamid Razzaq, a senior member of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, who is involved in the Yemeni peace talks, made similar remarks, saying that the Saudi side is not serious in the negotiations and evades major issues.
“Currently, the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, is trying to issue a statement that endorses the stability of a ceasefire, but it seems that Riyadh’s negotiators are not agreed with the statement and are trying to evade the issue,” Razzaq told Tasnim at the time.
Back in December, an Ansarullah delegation and fugitive former president Abd Rabbouh Mansour Hadi’s representatives began UN-brokered peace talks in Switzerland with the aim of reaching a solution to the country’s conflict. The talks led to a shaky truce that was repeatedly breached mainly by the Saudis before they officially announced an end to it on January 2.
The Houthi Ansarullah movement took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.
Saudi Arabia launched an aggression on Yemen in late March 2015 in a bid to return Hadi to power. Nearly 9,400 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.
Yemenis, in return, have been carrying out retaliatory attacks on the Saudi forces deployed in the country as well as targets inside Saudi Arabia.
