Local Editor
A delegation of Yemeni revolutionaries headed for UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva in Switzerland on Sunday.
The delegation left from Yemen’s capital of Sana’a aboard a UN plane for Geneva, where the talks are due to start the following day on Monday.
The UN peace envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said in a statement that Monday would see the start of "preliminary inclusive consultations" bringing together the country’s warring factions for the first time. He appealed for participants to take part "in good faith and without pre-conditions, and in a climate of trust and mutual respect."
Abdulmalik Agra, a member of the rebels’ political council, told AP that its group included a Houthi leader, Mehdi Mashat, official Ali Hamza al-Houthi, and three others - including men from the party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. They decided to attend the talks after the UN agreed to broaden the structure so they were not based solely on two warring sides. Members of the Socialist and Haqq parties were also joining.
A day earlier, a plane meant to carry the revolutionaries and their allies to the talks left Yemen without the delegates on board, casting doubt on whether the meetings would go forward as planned.
The delegation representing the government of embattled President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi arrived in Geneva on Saturday morning.
In Geneva on Sunday for preliminary meetings, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to take part in the opening session of the talks. He has said the negotiations are aimed at securing a cease-fire, and stepping up humanitarian aid deliveries.
The US-led Saudi military aggression against Yemen began on March 26 -- without a UN mandate -- in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
