UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmad said that the United Nations [UN] would intensify its efforts to reach a solution in Yemen, calling on the different Yemeni factions to get committed to a ceasefire during the Holy month of Ramadan, due to the "catastrophic humanitarian situation" across the country.
"There is a certain willingness from all the parties to discuss issues around a cease-fire accompanied by withdrawal ... I personally come out from these few days with a certain degree of optimism that we can achieve this [in further consultations] in the coming days," he told a news conference in Geneva.
"The [opposing] positions that as you know have been so strong in view of so many lives having been lost and where a government that is internationally recognized is outside the country. A lot of things didn’t make it easy for us."
Sheikh Ahmad said also that he would fly to New York on Sunday to brief the UN Security Council, where major powers also needed to sign off on his proposal for civilian observers to monitor any truce and withdrawals on the ground.
A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States began carrying out airstrikes against Yemen in late March.
The US-led Saudi aggression has killed more than 2,000 civilians, displaced more than a million and led to severe shortages of food, water, fuel and electricity.
The military aggression against Yemen began on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in an attempt to weaken the Houthi Ansarullah movement and bring the fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia, back to power.
