PEACE TALKS IN GENEVA ON THE BRINK AFTER HOUTHI NO-SHOW
Rebels refuse to attend unless wounded fighters flown to Muscat UN envoy thanks government of Yemen for its positive engagement More than 20 injured in new missile attack on Saudi Arabia
The United Nations special envoy on Yemen was battling to save the Geneva peace talks yesterday after the Houthi delegation refused to fly out without taking dozens of wounded fighters on board.
Martin Griffiths, the secretary general’s representative, met Yemeni government officials in the Swiss city but faced the collapse of the talks after the rebels failed to turn up for a second day.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Al Yamani said the government delegation might leave if the Houthi delegation failed to show up by Friday.
“Today should have been the first day of our consultation. We are here, the Houthis are not accepting to come,” he said.
“We are not here indefinitely,” he said. “We will take a decision on should we continue to stay in Geneva or should we withdraw.”
Mr Griffiths had described the proximity talks as a “flickering signal of hope” for an end to the three-year war in which more than 10,000 Yemenis have been killed. Diplomats said there was frustration at the last-minute Houthi demands, which emerged three days ago.
The list of conditions included transporting wounded rebels to Oman for treatment en route to Geneva and a guarantee that the delegation would be allowed to return home after the talks.
Mohammed Mousa Al Amiri, adviser to President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and member of the government delegation, said Iran was the main reason problems were occurring.
“All of what is happening in Yemen is due to Iran’s influence. The Houthi ideology, activities in Yemen, are Iranian,” Mr Al Amiri told The National.
“The Houthis don’t want to find peace, because they are a sectarian and racist group, they don’t want to participate in talks or collaborate,” he said.
Mr Griffiths said he was hopeful the impasse could be overcome in time and thanked the Yemeni government for its positive engagement in his efforts.
“The UN envoy is working on getting the Houthis to Geneva
and efforts are being made to ensure the Houthis’ presence, we are very hopeful,” Mr Griffiths said.
The drive to use the talks as a launch pad for a peace process had the active backing of regional and international diplomats, including the US Ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Tueller.
While he refrained from commenting on the development, the Houthi refusal to attend was described by another official as a surprise and dismaying.
The UN-mediated talks in Geneva would be the first public meetings involving government and rebel delegations since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to reach agreement on power sharing.
The hosts aimed to build confidence between the government and the Houthis as a step towards more comprehensive peace negotiations.
It was hoped that a series of small steps, such as the release of political prisoners and agreement on unifying central bank operations, would develop into a process that allowed the larger issues to be tackled in direct negotiations.
Having conducted months of shuttle diplomacy, Mr Griffiths felt that having the rival groupings in the same building would enable a breakthrough.
Failure to achieve even that will weigh on his efforts in the short term. Peace talks cannot be achieved if only one side is sitting at the table, said Joost Hiltermann, regional programme director for conflict monitoring organisation International Crisis Group.
In one of a series of carefully choreographed moves, the UN Security Council on Wednesday night expressed full support for Mr Griffiths’s efforts in leading the consultations to find a political settlement.
The council called for a full implementation of UN Resolution 2216 that calls for the Houthis to return Sanaa to government control and demands the Houthis stop using Yemen as a base to attack neighbouring countries.
But as the statement was released, the rebels launched a ballistic missile at the southern Saudi city of Najran on Wednesday night, injuring more than 20 people.
The Saudi-led coalition said the missile was intercepted by air defence forces but residents suffered mild injuries when shrapnel from the missile fell to earth, according to coalition spokesman Col Turki Al Malki.
“The Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces spotted the launch of the missile towards Najran and successfully intercepted and destroyed it,” Col Al Malki said.
“Houthi militias have so far fired 189 ballistic missiles towards the kingdom and these have resulted in the death of a total of 112 civilians, including citizens and expatriates, and injury of hundreds of others.”
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Yemeni Minister for Human Rights Mohammed Askar said his ministry was preparing a report on abuses by the Houthis that would be released next week.
Mr Askar also dismissed reports in rebel media that the Houthi delegation had not been given authorisation to fly out of Yemen.
Failure in Geneva could endanger efforts to address other effects of the war.