Al Mukalla: The Yemeni government team participating in the crumbling peace talks in Kuwait is leaving the country on Saturday or Sunday in protest against a new deal by ousted president and Al Houthis to form a joint council to run the country.
“We have decided to leave Kuwait and we would not take part in any direct or indirect talks with Al Houthis until they rescind their political council,” a member of the team told Gulf News on Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters.
The rebel movement on Thursday torpedoed the already faltering peace talks in Kuwait by signing a deal with their former arch enemy, the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The rebels, who once fostered deep enmity with Saleh for his six sporadic wars against them, agreed to share power with him in a new 10-member entity called the “supreme political council”.
In Kuwait, the government team held meetings with the ambassadors of the US, UK and the GCC states. “All ambassadors, including the Kuwaiti envoy, expressed their dismay over the Al Houthi-Saleh alliance. We emphasise that we came to Kuwait for the sake of peace and to make a comprehensive settlement.”
The current round of peace talks kicked off in April and were aimed at striking a deal to put an end to nearly two years of conflict that was caused by an Al Houthi power grab in 2014. Two previous rounds of talks in Geneva failed to stop the war.
The Al Houthi-Saleh agreement has triggered strong condemnation from the Yemeni government, as well as senior officials from Saleh’s General People Congress who threw their lot behind the internationally recognised president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Prime minister Ahmad Obaid Bin Daghar issued a statement condemning the deal and described the move as “arrogance” and reflects a lack of respect for the international community, sponsors of the peace talks, and the host country, Kuwait.
Officially declaring the end of talks, Abdullah Al Alimi, a top aide to president Hadi, said on Thursday that there is a breach to previous UN initiatives. “This stand challenges the regional and international community and UN resolutions and an explicit contravention of the GCC initiative and all parameters of political progress.” he said on Twitter.
From day one, negotiations between the warring factions had hit roadblocks and had often been close to collapse. The rebels first refused to fly to Kuwait before the air strikes by the Arab coalition warplanes were halted. The talks again came to a standstill when Al Houthis refused to recognise the legitimacy of president Hadi and demanded a unity government before pulling their forces out of cities.
Analysts in Yemen say the deal between Saleh and Al Houthis is a last-ditch effort to compensate losses on the ground. Abdul Sallam Mohammad, the director of Abad Centre for Strategic Studies, said on Friday that the government and the Saudi-led coalition now have no option but to mount massive military operation to recapture the capital. “The Saleh-Al Houthi agreement stems from a necessity to resolve military and economic collapse. The agreement brings back Saleh and his party to power.”
