Local Editor

The United Nations [UN] Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that peace talks aimed at ending the crisis in Yemen will begin in the Swiss city of Geneva on May 28.

Talking to reporters on Wednesday following a UN Security Council [UNSC] meeting in New York, Ban expressed hope that the UN-sponsored talks would "restore momentum towards a Yemeni-led political transition process" through an "inclusive, negotiated political settlement."

He also called on all parties to take part in the talks "without pre-conditions."

Additionally, UNSC President Raimonda Murmokaite said that the body under his watch emphasizes that "UN-brokered inclusive political dialogue must be a Yemeni-led process."

"The members of the Security Council reaffirmed their call on all Yemeni parties to attend these talks and engage without preconditions and in good faith, including by resolving their differences through dialog and consultations, rejecting acts of violence to achieve political goals, and refraining from provocation," Murmokaite said.

Meanwhile, Khaled Alyemany, the UN ambassador appointed under the administration of fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said a high-level delegation will be sent to the talks by Hadi.

For his part, the leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said on Wednesday that talks are the "only solution" to the conflict in his country.

He also condemned the "brutal and barbarous aggression" by Saudi Arabia against Yemen and called it a crime targeting the infrastructures of the country.

The Ansarullah movement had, however, slammed the recent talks on Yemen held in Saudi Arabia, saying it would only engage in dialog in Yemen or in a neutral country. The group said the negotiations, whose last session was held on Tuesday, did not represent the Yemeni population.

The developments come as Saudi Arabia counties its US-led military aggression against Yemen.

The Saudi military campaign started on March 26 without a UN mandate in a bid to restore power to Hadi, a close ally of Saudi Arabia.

According to the UN, over 1,800 people have been killed and 7,330 injured since March 19 in the conflict in Yemen.