New Yemen peace talks set for next week

The United Nations announced on Thursday that a fresh round of peace talks aimed at ending the conflict that has engulfed Yemen would begin next week. The international peacekeeping body also took the opportunity to urge all parties to attend the talks and participate "in good faith."

UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the meeting would first try to establish "a framework for an agreement" on a cease-fire and called upon both the government rebel groups to "engage constructively and in good faith, recognizing the need or a rapid end to the violence which has brought intolerable levels of suffering to the Yemeni people."

Ahmed lauded the promises of exiled President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Houthi insurgents, and the former ruling General People's Congress party to come to the talks.

Yemen has been in violent turmoil since the Iran-backed Houthis seized the capital Sanaa last year, forcing Hadi to flee to friendly Saudi Arabia. A Riyadh-led coalition began a campaign of airstrikes against Houthi targets in March but so far the rebels have not backed down and more than 4,000 people have been killed in a conflict that has brought the impoverished nation to the brink of famine.

es/bw (AFP, Reuters)