The U.N. envoy for Yemen announced Thursday that the warring parties in the country have agreed to take part in new peace talks in the region next week.
Special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed welcomed the commitment of the government, Shiite Houthi rebels and Yemen’s former ruling party, the General People’s Congress, to attend the talks. He said in a statement that he will announce a venue and date in the coming days.
The conflict pits Yemen’s exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against the Iranian-backed Houthis – who seized the capital, Sanaa, last year – and military units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
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A Saudi-led and U.S.-backed coalition began launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies on March 26, shortly after Hadi fled a rebel advance on the south. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the Arab world’s poorest country since then.
Several previous attempts to get the parties to end the conflict have failed.
Ahmed urged participants in the upcoming talks “to engage constructively and in good faith, recognizing the need for a rapid end to the violence which has brought intolerable levels of suffering to the Yemeni people.”
He said the aim of the U.N.-brokered talks is “to create a framework for an agreement” on a cease-fire and the resumption of the roadmap to a peaceful political transition.
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