Sana’a: Saudi-led coalition warplanes intensified raids on Yemen’s capital Wednesday, as Washington confirmed a top US diplomat had met representatives of Iran-backed militiamen to try to revive proposed Geneva peace talks.
The UN Security Council appealed for a new humanitarian ceasefire and peace talks as soon as possible to end fighting that has killed at least 2,000 people since March.
The 15-member council, backing an appeal by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, said in a unanimous statement it was “deeply disappointed” that the planned May 28 talks in Geneva were pushed back.
Saudi Arabia and its regional allies have been bombing the militiamen since late March to try to restore Yemen’s exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.
Dozens of explosions rocked the capital as coalition jets pounded Sana’a for hours from early Wednesday, an AFP correspondent said.
The raids targeted several militia arms depots, a pro-militia military police camp and a renegade troop base, according to residents.
The bombing shook nearby buildings and sent flames shooting into the air as debris rained down on houses in the surrounding area.
At least three people were killed and 11 wounded in the raids and subsequent explosions, a medical source told AFP.
The coalition also struck positions in the northern provinces of Jawf, Saada and Hajja near the border with Saudi Arabia, as well as in the third city of Taiz and the southern province of Dhaleh.
Al Houthis have allied with renegade troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled Yemen for three decades before stepping down in February 2012 after a year-long uprising.
Washington said Tuesday that its top diplomat for the Near East, Anne Patterson, had held talks with Al Houthi militia representatives in neighbouring Oman to try to persuade them to take part in the proposed Geneva conference.
The Oman meeting aimed to “reinforce our view that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen and that all parties including Al Houthi” should participate in “the UN-led political process,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
The Geneva conference was postponed days before it was due to start, after the UN failed to persuade the warring parties to attend.
Patterson also travelled to Saudi Arabia for talks with the kingdom’s leaders as well as Hadi, who fled Yemen earlier this year as the militiamen tightened their grip on much of the war-wracked country.
As diplomatic efforts gathered pace, UN envoy Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad met with Hadi this week after travelling to militia-held Sana’a for talks there.
A five-day ceasefire last month allowed aid agencies to reach civilians caught in the fighting, but UN efforts to prolong the truce failed.
A diplomatic source told AFP that an announcement on a new date for the talks, possibly around June 10, was expected soon.
A spokesman for Hadi’s internationally recognised government, Rajeh Badi, said on Tuesday that efforts were under way to hold the meeting “within two weeks”.
But he said there was “no talk” of a truce between Al Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition.
The government is insisting that the militiamen relinquish seized territory and weapons before it attends the talks.
