YEMEN-SECURITY/TALKS END Yemen talks end with no truce, UN expects agreement before next round of talks

Record ID: 151792

  • Title: YEMEN-SECURITY/TALKS END Yemen talks end with no truce, UN expects agreement before next round of talks
  • Date: 19th June 2015
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JUNE 19, 2015) (REUTERS) UN BUILDING WITH SATELLITE TRUCK OUTSIDE VARIOUS OF UN SPECIAL ENVOY ISMAIL OULD CHEIKH AHMED (RIGHT) AND UN SPOKESMAN DURING NEWS BRIEFING PHOTOGRAPHER PHOTOGRAPHERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) UN SPECIAL ENVOY, ISMAIL OULD CHEIKH AHMED, SAYING: "We believe that if there is a further consultation, we can reach this possibility of a
  • Embargoed: 4th July 2015 13:00
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  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABQS32OX94BBUG84U1IEFUR6WS
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: UN-sponsored talks in Geneva on a ceasefire between Yemen's civil war parties ended on Friday (June 19) without a deal, as Saudi-led warplanes staged further strikes on the dominant Houthi armed faction and allies including elite Republican Guards.
    More than 2,800 people have been killed since an Arab alliance launched air raids on March 26 to try to roll back the Iranian-backed Houthis' advances across much of Yemen and reinstate exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
    U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that in five days of "proximity talks", in which he shuttled between factions who refused to sit at the same table, the two sides agreed in principle on the need for a ceasefire and withdrawal of forces in keeping with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216.
    "We believe that if there is a further consultation, we can reach this possibility of a ceasefire and a withdrawal, accompanied by a withdrawal. There is in principle no disagreement on this basic element. We feel that it requires simply some further consultation, and that we can achieve it pretty soon. I remain optimistic on this one," said Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
    "I would like to clarify first in regard to the ceasefire or the pause. We are definitely hoping to have that before any next round of talks. For us actually, the achievement of a pause or a humanitarian pause or a cease-fire should be by itself part of the confidence building for any future talks," he added.
    Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he would fly to New York on Sunday (June 21) to brief the U.N. Security Council, where major powers also needed to sign off on his proposal for a force of civilian observers to monitor any truce and withdrawals on the ground.
    Hadi's foreign minister, Reyad Yassin Abdullah, said the talks made no significant headway but there was room for more discussions, although no date had been scheduled for any.
    "There is no agreement, let's be clear about that, I will not beat around the bush. There was no kind of agreement reached because the parties had divergent views with regard to reaching the original agreement, with regard to reaching an agreement in itself," said the The UN envoy.
    He added that however, the talks in Geneva did opened communication between the parties.
    "We should all realise that the Geneva consultations are not an end in itself but the launch of a long and arduous path to get back Yemen to a transitional political phase that was prepared for in the previous dialogue by the Yemenis. The door is open for the Yemenis to continue consultations and the dialogue. This is what we felt from all the participants in the Geneva consultations," said Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
    Hadi's government has demanded that the Houthis, who are allied with Yemeni military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, pull out of cities captured since last September as a precondition for a ceasefire.
    Yemen has been in upheaval since the Houthis surged out of their stronghold Saada province in the north and seized the capital Sanaa in September, a move they said was aimed at forcing Hadi to bring them into the government.
    But the heavily armed Houthis, from the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam, swiftly pushed into central and south Yemen including the major port of Aden, driving Hadi's government into exile in Saudi Arabia.
    The group denies drawing military support from Shi'ite Iran and says it is fighting against corruption and Sunni Muslim al Qaeda militants who grabbed power in parts of the south during a 2011 uprising that spread anarchy and ousted Saleh.
    Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, intervened militarily out of concern for what it sees as a growing Iranian sway in the Arabian Peninsula, but air strikes have yet to significantly reverse Houthi territorial gains.
    In Sanaa, residents reported three air strikes early on Friday on the al-Sawad camp in a southern suburb where the command of the Republican Guards allied with Saleh and the Houthis is based.
    Another three air strikes were reported in the Khawlan region, southeast of Sanaa, six on a camp housing the Houthi-allied 115th Infantry Brigade in the al-Hazm district of al-Jouf province, and three on Houthi positions on Aden's outskirts.
    Residents gave no details on casualties, but the Houthis reported that nine civilians were killed in air strikes on the Razeh district of Saada province that is the Houthi heartland, bordering on Saudi Arabia.
    The United Nations on Friday also launched a revised humanitarian appeal of $1.6 billion for the large number of Yemenis trapped or displaced by the conflict.
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