US Secretary of State John Kerry announces a fresh international peace initiative for Yemen aimed at forming a unity government to resolve its 17-month-old conflict.
“This war needs to end and it needs to end as quickly as possible,” Kerry said after a meeting in Saudi Arabia with Gulf counterparts, a British minister and the UN peace envoy to Yemen.
He said participants “agreed on a renewed approach to negotiations” between the Saudi-backed government and Iran-supported Shiite rebels, after three months of talks in Kuwait ended earlier in August without headway.
Forces loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni president flash their arms at a road on the entrance to Abyan province as they take part in an operation to drive Al-Qaeda fighters out of the southern provincial capital, on April 23, 2016 (AFP PHOTO / SALEH AL-OBEIDI)
Those talks were suspended when the Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, appointed a council to govern Yemen.
Kerry outlined a plan which offers the Houthis participation in government in exchange for an end to violence and a surrender of weapons. “This is a proposal that offers the Houthis an opportunity to have confidence in the government structure that will be put in place,” he said.
The Houthis had been demanding a unity government as the first step towards resolving Yemen’s war.
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