Local Editor
UN-brokered Yemeni peace talks in Kuwait entered a fourth day Sunday with forces loyal to the fujitive president and Ansarullah delegations still far from reaching an agreement to end 13 months of war.
The delegations resumed "talks and started the plenary session," Charbel Raji, spokesman for the UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told AFP without providing further details.
Sources close to the talks said on Saturday that the two sides had failed to reach an understanding on the need to firm up a fragile cease-fire in place since April 11.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed acknowledged the negotiations were difficult but expressed hope for progress.
"The atmosphere of the talks is promising and there is common ground to build on in order to reconcile differences," the UN envoy said in a statement issued late Saturday.
The delegates had agreed to appoint two officials, one from each side, to make recommendations on how to sustain the cease-fire, he added.
But the two sides differ on priorities for the cease-fire.
The delegation from the forces loyal to the fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said overnight that the cease-fire should include opening safe passages to all besieged areas and releasing political prisoners as part of confidence-building measures.
The Ansarullah movement is demanding an immediate halt to airstrikes that a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out since March 2015 in support of Hadi.
"The continuity of airstrikes by targeting roads, bridges and homes like what happened yesterday... affirms that the announcement of cessation of military actions is baseless," said Mohamed Abdulsalam, the Houthi spokesman and head of delegation.
This meant that "the path of negotiations under aggression will not be different from previous rounds," Abdulsalam wrote on Facebook, in reference to the two failed rounds held in Switzerland late last year.
The two sides also differ on the way to tackle other central issues.
The Houthis want the political process and the establishment of a national unity government to be first, sources close to the talks said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
