Geneva: Yemen’s warring factions sought to make military advances on the ground before accepting a humanitarian pause in fighting proposed by the UN at negotiations that concluded in Geneva on Friday, experts say.
No advances were made at the talks, with both the Iran-backed Al Houthi militia and the exiled government that has turned to Saudi Arabia for support sticking to their guns.
“Neither side has exhausted its military options, and they both think they could achieve more gains on the ground,” said April Alley, a Yemen specialist with the International Crisis Group.
UN special envoy for Yemen, Mauritanian diplomat Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, has been frantically shuttling between the hotels housing the two
delegations to convince them to declare a halt in the relentless violence.
If it can’t achieve that, the UN hopes to at least get them to agree to a 15-day humanitarian truce. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the high-stakes negotiations on Monday with an appeal for a two-week humanitarian truce during Ramadan.
The negotiations, in their fifth day, were bogged down by the government’s insistence that the Al Houthis withdraw from the vast territory they control, including the capital Sana’a.
Call to halt air strikes
The Al Houthis have overrun much of the country and, along with their allies including forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been the target of Saudi-led air strikes since March.
More than 2,600 people have been killed since then and some 21 million Yemenis are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. The militia meanwhile is demanding an unconditional halt to the air strikes before they will consider a pause in fighting.
A source close to the neg-otiations however said that on Thursday the Al Houthis seemed prepared to consider withdrawals from the southern city of Aden and central city of Taez, far removed from their northern stronghold.
Since they entered Sana’a last September, the militia has swept through the country, forcing President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.
Their massive advances were made possible by their alliance with ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. A Western diplomat following the Geneva talks compared the alliance to “a marriage of convenience”, where each side brings something to the table.
