Local Editor
The UN envoy to Yemen arrived in the capital Sana’a on Sunday amid signals of readiness from parties concerned to make concessions for ending the civil war.
Martin Griffiths was scheduled to discuss with leaders of the Houthi Ansarullah movement, according to the Houthi officials.
The visit comes two days after Griffiths' briefing to the UN Security Council, in which he highlighted progress in the Yemeni political discussions to end war.
"The progress should serve as a catalyst to move Yemen swiftly toward settling this conflict through political means," he told the Security Council on Friday, referring to the Riyadh Agreement and Stockholm Agreement, reached respectively on Nov. 5 this year and in December last year.
Another sign Griffiths cited in his briefing was the nearly 80-percent drop in airstrikes nationwide in the past two weeks. Claims the Houthis denied.
The UN envoy considered those signals a "momentum" that can be building on to end the Yemen's over four-year devastating civil war.
"We call this de-escalation, a reduction in the tempo of the war, and perhaps a move toward an overall cease-fire in Yemen," Griffiths noted.
The Riyadh Agreement has ended months of infighting between the resigned regime of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and southern separatists in Yemen's port city of Aden, while the cease-fire in the western port city of Hodeida has been largely held between the Hadi forces and the Ansarullah government in accordance with the Stockholm Agreement.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 3 million and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
