Local Editor
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN’s special envoy to Yemen, will head to the southern city of Aden on Monday where he will meet Yemeni government officials with a view to restarting the country’s stalled peace process, a government source told Anadolu Agency.
The source, speaking anonymously as he was not allowed to talk to media, said that during his visit Ahmed planned to meet with fugitive President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and officials from the ex-regime Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr as well as Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik al-Mikhlafi.
It is uncertain whether Ahmed plans to present his interlocutors with a new peace plan after regime officials rejected an earlier roadmap proposed by the envoy last October.
The envoy’s visit comes within the context of a regional tour that has already brought him to Saudi capital Riyadh, Qatari capital Doha and Omani capital Muscat, where he has briefed local officials on his ongoing peace efforts.
As it currently stands, Ahmed’s plan calls for the appointment of a new Yemeni vice-president (to whom presidential powers would eventually devolve), the withdrawal of the Houthi Ansarullah movement from capital Sanaa, and the formation of a national unity government that would include the Houthi elements.
Last year, government and Houthi negotiators took part in UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait aimed at resolving the conflict, in which thousands of Yemenis are believed to have been killed and some 2.5 million forced to flee their homes.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
