US calls for Yemen truce, peace talks
0attis said :ashington had Eeen watching the conflict ‘for long enough :e haye got to Poye towards a peace effort here, and we can’t say we are going to do it sope tipe in the future’
WASHINGTON: The United States called on Tuesday for a ceasefire and peace talks in Yemen as the Saudi-led military coalition sent more than 10,000 new troops towards a vital rebel-held port city ahead of a new assault.
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said the US had been watching the conlict “for long enough.”
“We have got to move towards a peace effort here, and we can’t say we are going to do it some time in the future,” Mattis said at the US Institute of Peace in Washington.
“We need to be doing this in the next 30 days.”
He said the US is calling for all warring parties to meet with United Nations special envoy Martin Grifiths in Sweden in November and “come to a solution.”
The pro-government coalition deployed its reinforcements to the Red Sea coast ahead of a new offensive on Hodeida “within days,” a military oficial said earlier.
He said they would also “secure areas liberated” from the Houthi rebels, and that forces from Sudan, part of the coalition, had moved in to “secure” areas around the city.
Houthi rebels have for the past 10 days been stationing ighters on rooftops of buildings in Hodeida city, government military oficials said.
“The time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV (drone) strikes from Houthi-controlled areas,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
“Subsequently, coalition air strikes must cease in all populated areas in Yemen.”
Mattis said the ceasefire should be based on a pullback of Houthi rebels from the border and a ceasefire, and the parties must come together to end the war.
“That will permit the special envoy Martin Grifiths to get them together in Sweden and end this war. That is the only way we are going to really solve this,” he added.
Pompeo said the peace talks would aim to “implement confidence-building measures to address the underlying issues of the conlict, the demilitarisation of borders and the concentration of all large weapons under international observation.”
“A cessation of hostilities and vigorous resumption of a political track will help ease the humanitarian crisis as well,” he added.