Yemen talks in Sweden next week

Un-sponsored peace talks between Yemen’s warring parties are expected to start next week in Sweden, Britain’s envoy to Yemen said on Thursday.

“The Sweden consultations led by the UN envoy will take place next week ... the political solution is the way to move forward,” Michael Aron, the Riyadh-based British ambassador to Yemen, tweeted to the Houthis’ spokesman Mohammed Abdusalam.

Martin Griffiths, the UN envoy to Yemen, met representatives of Yemen’s political parties in Jordan’s capital Amman on Thursday.

Two representatives who attended the meeting said Griffiths hoped to hold the next round on Dec. 4, but it would depend on the evacuation of 50 wounded Houthis, which the UN envoy said it would happen by Monday.

A spokeswoman from Griffiths’ office declined to give an exact date for the talks. “Preparations are ongoing as planned and we hope the consultations will convene in early December,” she said.

The last UN attempt to convene the warring parties collapsed after the Houthis asked for guarantees from the United Nations that their plane would not be inspected. They also wanted to evacuate some of their wounded to Oman for treatment.

Kuwait has offered to provide planes for the parties to ensure the participation of both sides in Stockholm.

Yemen’s government has called for a block on the broadcast of a rebel television channel from the war-torn country, the state news agency reported Wednesday.

Information Minister Moammer Al Eryani said the Houthi-run Almasirah television was “generating poisonous sectarianism and inciting violence and hatred”, Saba news agency reported.