UN CALLS ON SWEDEN TO HOST YEMEN PEACE TALKS
Griffiths: negotiations between the government and Houthi rebels to take place within a month
The UN has asked Sweden to host Yemen peace talks as western powers make a push to wind down the country’s civil war.
The last attempt at a negotiated peace in September collapsed after Houthi rebel representatives refused to travel to Geneva for meetings with the internationally recognised government.
Swedish Foreign Minis- ter Margot Wallstrom said the UN asked if her country “could be a place for the UN envoy to gather the parties in this conflict”.
Stockholm would be “happy about it” but nothing was definite, Ms Wallstrom told Sweden’s news agency TT.
“We have always supported UN envoy Martin Griffiths, both in the UN and in the EU,” she said.
Mr Griffiths yesterday welcomed international calls for the resumption of peace talks.
“I urge all concerned parties to seize this opportunity to engage constructively with our current efforts to swiftly resume political consultations to agree on a framework for political negotiations and confidence-building measures, in particular enhancing the capacities of the Central Bank of Yemen, the exchange of prisoners and the reopening of Sanaa airport,” he said yesterday.
“We remain committed to bringing the Yemeni parties to the negotiations table within a month. Dialogue remains the only path to reach an inclusive agreement.”
During the past six months, the UN has pushed for a political deal to end the conflict.
Mr Griffiths has hinted that a significant deal was expected be reached by the end of this year.
In the strongest line yet from the US, the Secretary of Defence, James Mattis, said on Tuesday that talks must happen within the next 30 days.
“We have got to move toward a peace effort here and we can’t say we are going to do it sometime in the future,” Mr Mattis said at the US Institute of Peace in Washington.
Warring parties must “meet
in Sweden in November and come to a solution, not talk about subordinate issues,” he said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May backed Mr Mattis’s call for action. Mrs May told parliament yesterday: “A nationwide ceasefire will only have an effect on the ground if it is underpinned by a political deal between the conflict parties.”
British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, said the Houthis were to blame for the failure of the Geneva initiative, adding that maximum support for Mr Griffiths’s efforts was needed.
“We don’t want to do anything to undercut it. If you want to see an end to the conflict you will support Martin Griffiths and his efforts,” Mr Burt said.
He said the Houthis were responsible for the systematic recruitment of child soldiers, interference with health campaigns to battle cholera outbreaks, the abuse of humanitarian aid and were behind a string of political assassinations.
The US and UK should pressure the Houthis to seriously participate in peace talks, Saudi commentator Saeed Alwahabi said.
“Any plans for a ceasefire are generally welcomed by the coalition as it has happened twice before,” Mr Alwahabi said.
The US and UK are calling for a ceasefire now because they believe Saudi Arabia is in a position to show good will, said Cinzia Bianco, a senior analyst at Gulf State Analytics.
Although peace talks will probably face the same hurdles that blocked previous efforts, a ceasefire might be more achievable, she said.
“The longer-term hope is that a freeze of the conflict would allow for better conditions to negotiate politically,” Ms Bianco said.
Mr Griffiths said the failure to hold the Geneva talks in September was not a fundamental block to the Yemen peace process and did not signify a deadlock. He said it merely delayed the formal start of talks and insisted progress had been made.
In September, Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled Al Yamani, said that he hoped for more substantive discussions soon.
The minister, who leads the government delegation, said that the international community should have been more serious in dealing with the Houthis.
Mr Al Yamani said that if the rebels were sincere about reaching a peace deal then they should have gone to Geneva, even if the two factions were meeting in separate rooms, with Mr Griffiths acting as an intermediary.
Meanwhile, in Aden, the UAE’s Minister of State for International Co-operation, Reem Al Hashimy, paid a visit to members of the UAE’s Armed Forces.
Ms Al Hashimy commended the soldiers for their courage and determination, the state news agency Wam reported. Her visit came a few days after the Saudi-led Arab Coalition sent 10,000 additional troops to the rebel-held port of Hodeidah.
Military operations were renewed this week in the vital port city, aiming to push back the rebels. But the Houthis still hold parts of Hodeidah and the capital, Sanaa.
Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict between embattled Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, whose government is recognised by the UN, and the Houthis in 2015.
The longer-term hope is that a freeze of the Yemeni conflict would allow for better conditions to negotiate politically CINZIA BIANCO Analyst