Local Editor
The UN's Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths has met the country's Houthi revolutionaries in a push for new peace talks, as fighting continued on Friday (Sep 14) around the strategic port city of Hodeida.
Griffiths travelled to the Omani capital Muscat to meet the Houthis.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, head of the Houthi delegation, and fellow official Abdelmalak al-Ajri discussed the reasons for their absence from Geneva with the United Nations envoy, the state-run Saba news agency said.
The first negotiations between Yemen's warring sides in two years were scheduled to start last Thursday.
The Houthis had accused the UN of failing to guarantee the return of their delegation from Switzerland to the Yemeni capital Sana’a and to secure the evacuation of wounded revolutionaries to Oman.
This Thursday's discussions also covered the "necessary measures" needed for fresh talks set for "as soon as possible", Saba reported.
Hamid Assem, a member of the Houthi delegation, told AFP on Friday there had been no breakthrough.
"There has not been progress regarding the discussions while we have not received the guarantees," he said by phone.
Griffiths is also scheduled to visit the Yemeni capital Sana’a and Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition against the Houthis.
The last talks between the Houthis and the resigned regime, led by former President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, took place in Kuwait in 2016.
Those negotiations faltered over power-sharing.
They collapsed after 108 days and the Houthi delegation was subsequently stranded in Oman for three months due to a coalition air blockade.
After the failure of the Geneva talks, deadly clashes resumed around the port city of Hodeida, a vital entry point for aid to a country teetering on the edge of famine.
Over 60 people have died in fighting around Hodeida since Wednesday.
The Houthis launched a counter-offensive on Thursday to retake the roads, which link Hodeida to Sana’a, military sources told AFP.
Since Riyadh and its allies intervened in Yemen in March 2015, around 10,000 people have been killed in a conflict which has sparked a grave humanitarian crisis.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
