UN Envoy Visits Yemen for Talks with Ansarullah

Local Editor

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived Saturday in the Yemeni capital to try to restart peace talks between the Houthi Ansarullah movement and members of the former Yemeni regime.

The Mauritanian diplomat met Ali Hajar, a foreign affairs representative of Ansarullah revolutionaries, Sana’a airport director Khaled al-Shayef told AFP.

His visit comes a day after the UN envoy held talks in Riyadh with fugitive president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Yemen’s Saba news agency said Ould Cheikh Ahmed met Hadi to relaunch "efforts to reestablish peace in Yemen".

"All doors are open to reach peace based on (UN) Security Council resolutions," Hadi was quoted as saying.

Yemen has been since March 26, 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.

Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.

Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.

The UN said Friday that Saudi-led raids are responsible for the vast majority of the estimated 3,200 civilian deaths in the Yemen war.

This week coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP that the alliance was at "the end of the major combat phase", raising hopes of a possible relaunch of peace talks.

Previous UN-sponsored negotiations between Ansarullah and the exiled government officials failed to reach a breakthrough, and the most recent round ended in acrimony in December.

The World Health Organization says fighting in Yemen has killed more than 6,200 people over the past year and the United Nations has warned of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.

Sources: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team