Local Editor

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for an immediate two-week humanitarian pause in Yemen for the holy month of Ramadan as UN-sponsored talks got underway in Switzerland’s Geneva to try and resolve the conflict in Yemen.

"I hope this week starts the beginning of the end of the fighting," Ban said.

"Ramadan begins in two days," he said, stressing that the holy Muslim month should be a period for "harmony, peace and reconciliation".

"I have emphasized the importance of another humanitarian pause for two weeks," Ban said.

Underscoring the need for immediate action in Yemen, he said: "The ticking clock is not a time piece, it is a time bomb."

He also called on all parties to reach agreement on a "comprehensive and lasting" ceasefire.

UN-sponsored talks aimed at brokering a peace in Yemen were to being on Monday in Geneva.

The talks come as the US-led Saudi aggression against Yemen continues to pound the impoverished country and kill more civilians.

The US-led Saudi military aggression against Yemen started on March 26 -- without a UN mandate -- in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.