Yemen peace talks end in failure, new round set in a month’s time

Kuwait City: The UN suspended talks between Yemen’s warring parties yesterday after the Iran-backed rebels and their allies appointed a council to run the country in a blow to the peace process.
In July, the rebels and forces allied to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected a UN peace plan and announced the creation of a “supreme political council” to run Yemen.
At the time, UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed denounced the council as a “grave breach” of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 and a violation of commitments to the peace process.
On Saturday, he said he was suspending peace talks that Kuwait has hosted for more than three months, but also said he would continue to consult with both sides to arrange further negotiations.
“We have guarantees and commitments from the two sides that they are ready to return to the negotiating table,” he said, adding that a new round of talks could begin in a month’s time.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed refused to call the talks under way since April a failure, although they made no headway. But he did say the creation of the council by the rebels and their allies was not in the interests of Yemen or the peace process. “We condemn any unilateral step,” he said.
A peace plan submitted by the UN envoy had been accepted by the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi but rejected by the rebels.

10-member council
Hours before Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced he was suspending the talks, the rebels named the 10 members to sit on the governing council, a move that also strengthens their control of Sanaa.
The list published by the Huthi-controlled Saba news agency showed that members of the governing council were equally divided between rebels and Saleh loyalists.
The Iran-backed Huthis overran the capital in late 2014 before moving into other parts of Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to launch an air campaign in support of Yemen’s President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015 to push back Huthi rebels.