UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced talks between warring Yemeni parties in Geneva on Thursday next week aimed at ending more than seven weeks of war, as Iran agreed to international inspections of an aid ship sailing to Yemen.
The moves are designed to defuse the deepening crisis in the southern Arabian Peninsula, where Saudi-led forces killed at least 15 Houthis in the latest air strikes of a campaign aimed at returning Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and regional Shiite powerhouse Iran are in a tussle over influence in the Middle East, where sectarian tensions are fueling conflicts in Syria and Iraq that have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
“The Secretary-General is pleased to announce the launch of inclusive consultations starting on 28 May in Geneva to restore momentum towards a Yemeni-led political transition process,” the UN statement issued in New York said.
A UN Security Council source said Ban was expected to attend the opening session.
In New York, the UN Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the Yemen crisis.
It issued a statement urging “all Yemeni parties to attend these talks and engage without preconditions and in good faith,” while also calling for the resumption of humanitarian pauses in the fighting.
The foreign minister of the exiled Yemeni government based in Saudi Arabia appeared surprised by the announcement and said the Houthis must first disarm and leave cities they have held since September last year.
“We didn’t get an official invitation,” Yemei Minister of Foreign Affairs Reyad Yassin Abdulla said by telephone. “It’s very short notice. If it happens, it shouldn’t be on May 28.”
However, Yemeni Ambassador to the UN Khaled Alyemany said all parties, including the Houthis, would attend.
Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi announced “conditions” for their attendance of the talks in a speech broadcast on Wednesday, including a commitment by parties to a controversial agreement after the Houthis’ takeover of the capital that integrated the militia into all the state’s institutions.
“The only way to solve the political problem is dialogue in a neutral country over what has been agreed upon in advance in the peace and partnership agreement,” al-Houthi said.
A conference organized by the Yemeni government, which was not attended by the Houthis, concluded in Riyadh on Tuesday by calling on the Houthis to drop their weapons and withdraw from the cities they had captured before any talks could begin.
The UN announcement came as Iran announced that the Iranian cargo ship sailing to Yemen with 2,500 tonnes of food and medical supplies would submit to international inspections in Djibouti before continuing on to Yemen’s Hodaida Port, which is under Houthi control.
The move reduces the risk of a potential showdown between the vessel, which had been escorted by Iranian warships, and Saudi-led forces enforcing inspections on vessels entering Yemeni ports to prevent arms supplies from reaching the Houthis.
“We have decided to dock our ship in Djibouti so the United Nations inspection protocol can take place,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian was quoted as saying by Iran’s ISNA news agency.
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