BOTH SIDES IN SWEDEN FOR TALKS ON ENDING YEMEN WAR
▶ Government team arrives as US urges both sides to engage in ‘this vital and necessary first step’
Negotiators for Yemen’s internationally recognised government have arrived in Sweden from Saudi Arabia for UN-backed talks with Houthi rebels to hopefully end a war that has brought economic ruin and famine to the country.
A rebel delegation is already at the conference venue north of Stockholm after arriving on Tuesday. Talks are scheduled to start today.
The tone from all sides appeared to be more positive than before September’s round of abortive talks in Geneva, which the Iran-backed Houthis refused to attend.
If the warring parties meet, it will be the first time since 2016 that the team representing the internationally recognised government of Abdrabu Mansur Hadi engages in UN-backed talks with the rebels.
This time, a willingness to carry out confidence-building measures, which included a prisoner swap and flying wounded rebel fighters to Oman for treatment, helped UN envoy Martin Griffiths to bring the two sides together.
Security around the Johannesbergs Castle – where the talks are to take place – has been tight.
Four police cars have been in position at the palace since yesterday morning and two fire brigade units with more than 10 firefighters were stationed in the parking lot.
A police officer told The National that it was a “standard security procedure”.
The British ambassador to Yemen, Michael Aron, confirmed that the talks would begin today.
Abdullah Al Alimi, head of Mr Hadi’s office and member of the government’s team, said they wanted to end the civil war.
“The delegation will leave today carrying the hopes of the Yemeni people for sustainable peace,” Mr Al Alimi said. “We want peace to prevail, to end the war and eliminate all causes that led to the coup.”
Mr Hadi intends to focus on alleviating the suffering of Yemeni civilians in the coming talks but blamed the Houthis for the country’s devastation, Mr Al Alimi said.
The US urged both sides to engage in the talks and to halt the fighting that flared up in recent weeks, a reference to clashes on Yemen’s west coast and around the port city of Hodeidah.
“The people of Yemen have suffered far too long,” said Heather Nauert, US State Department spokeswoman. “The parties owe it to their fellow Yemenis to seize this opportunity. We have no illusions that this process will be easy, but we welcome this necessary and vital first step.”
Both sides have come under growing pressure from the US, the UK and the UN, to end a war that has claimed more than 10,000 lives and left millions more in danger of starvation.
Meanwhile, the Emirati Red Crescent announced a project to support the creation of jobs for 1,000 families of those killed or wounded in the war.
“The ERC has been intensifying its humanitarian intervention in Yemen, and later on it started to expand its humanitarian aid by focusing on sustainable development for the people who are in need of such rewarding projects to help them make a living,” said the UAE ambassador to Yemen, Salem Al Ghafli.
The world’s worst humanitarian crisis is in Yemen, where the government and a Saudi-led coalition have been at war with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since March 2015.
Iran on Monday said it backed the UN-sponsored peace negotiations.
“Tehran is ready to help international talks to end the crisis and underlines the importance of accelerating the provision of humanitarian aid to the people,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.