Geneva: A United Nations special envoy will hold separate “proximity” talks with Yemen’s two main warring parties in Geneva on Sunday, in the hope of bringing them to the same table eventually, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad has convened the talks, expected to last two or three days, to try to end more than two months of war between Iranian-backed Al Houthis and forces loyal to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi Arabia.
“The talks will start as proximity talks, which means the envoy will be shuttling between the two groups in the hope that he can bring them together during these consultations,” spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a news briefing in Geneva.
A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the Al Houthis, fearing the movement will act as a proxy for Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival in the region, Iran.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the opening day of the talks, which Fawzi said were the start of a process.
“They are the first consultations to involve the different sides of the Yemeni conflict since hostilities resumed, and therefore mark an important step as the parties, we hope, embark on a road toward a settlement.” He added: “The Special Envoy hopes, and the Secretary-General hopes, that the Geneva consultation on Yemen will create a new dynamic that will build confidence between the Yemeni actors and yield concrete benefits for the population, especially reduced violence and increased access to humanitarian aid and basic services.”
More than 3,000 people have been affected by an outbreak of dengue fever in Yemen since late March, with three deaths, the World Health Organisation said. “However, there are unconfirmed reports we are verifying that suggest cases and deaths, especially in Aden, could be much higher,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jarasevic told the briefing.
Meanwhile, Unesco asked all parties of the conflict to respect Yemen’s heritage. The call came after Saudi-led coalition air strikes hit a part of Sana’a’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage.
At least six people were killed in the air strike, Yemen’s state news agency Saba said on Friday.
The raid, which began in the early hours, also injured several people, reduced five houses to rubble and damaged other buildings, the Al Houthi militia-controlled news agency said.
The Old City has been inhabited for nearly 2,500 years and has a high density of unique ochre and white, mud-brick, tower houses, labyrinthine souqs, mosques and hammams or bathhouses.
For more than 11 weeks, an Arab military grouping led by Saudi Arabia has been bombing the Al Houthis, now the dominant group in Yemen, in a bid to restore the exiled president to power and support local fighters in battlefields nationwide.
The WHO said on Friday 2,584 people have been killed and 11,065 injured in the conflict so far.
UN-sponsored talks are due to be held in Geneva on Sunday to try to find a solution to the crisis which has left 80 per cent of the population needing some form of humanitarian aid.
