Ousted Yemeni Gov’t Says Ready for UN Talks with Ansarullah
Local Editor
Yemen’s ousted government said on Monday that it has agreed to participate in United Nations [UN]-sponsored talks with Ansarullah revolutionaries.
The UN is yet to announce the date and location for the proposed talks, but the exiled government’s spokesman, Rajeh Badi, told AFP that they are likely to be held in Geneva, Switzerland.
"Yes, we have agreed to take part" in the talks, he said.
He confirmed over the weekend that the UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had delivered an invitation to fresh talks with Ansarullah and former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
A first attempt to hold peace talks in Geneva in June between the ousted government and Ansarullah revolutionaries, known as Houthis, had collapsed.
A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States began to launch a military aggression on Yemen by carrying out airstrikes against the country on March 26 in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former Yemeni President, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
The airstrikes have not been authorized by the UN.
The ’civilian’ death toll in Yemen has risen to more than 2,300 with more than 4,000 other civilians wounded in the fighting in the country that has raged for more than a year now, according to the UN recently last month [September]. Yet, other organizations put the death toll at much higher.
