Kuwait City: The Yemeni government said Sunday it has accepted a UN-proposed peace agreement to end more than a year of armed conflict, but there has been no word from the rebels.
The announcement by the Saudi-backed government came after a high-level meeting in Riyadh chaired by Yemen’s President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
“The meeting approved the draft agreement presented by the United Nations calling for an end to the armed conflict and the withdrawal (of rebels) from Sana’a... and the cities of Taiz and Al Hudaida,” said a statement, cited by the Saba news agency.
Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abdul Malek Al Mikhlafi, who is leading negotiating team in Kuwait City, said he has sent a letter to the UN special envoy informing him the government backed the “Kuwait Agreement”.
One pre-condition, however, is that the Iran-backed Al Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh sign the deal by August 7, Al Mikhlafi wrote on Twitter.
He said the Yemeni leadership has authorised the delegation to sign the deal, which has received strong international and regional backing.
There has been no official reaction from the rebels.
Al Houthi spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam, however, said on Twitter before the government announcement that the rebels insist on a comprehensive and complete solution, and rejected what he called “half solutions”.
Under the agreement, all decisions made by the rebels since they occupied the capital in September 2014 will be scrapped, Al Mikhlafi said.
The deal also abolishes the controversial supreme political council set up jointly by the Al Houthis and the General People’s Congress of former president Saleh on Thursday to run the country, he said.
A political dialogue between various Yemeni factions will start 45 days after the rebels withdraw and hand over heavy weapons to a military committee to be formed by President Hadi.
Prisoners of war will also be freed, as specified by the UN Security Council resolution 2216, the agreement said.
The talks in Kuwait, which began on April 21, have so far made no major breakthrough.
UN special envoy Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad on Saturday managed to extend discussions for a week after the government delegation said it was leaving, and submitted the peace deal draft to both sides.
The government approval also came hours after intense fighting on the Saudi-Yemen border overnight Saturday.
The Saudi-led military coalition says seven Saudi border guards, including an officer, have been killed in a cross-border clash with militants from Yemen.
In a statement early Sunday, the coalition fighting Yemen’s rebels said Saudi border guards on Saturday repelled a rebel attempt to cross the kingdom’s southern borders in the Najran area.
The coalition backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government against Al Houthis and their allies who control territory inside Yemen.
The statement said the attacks were in violation of a cease-fire which was declared by the UN on April 10. The cease-fire remains shaky, with both sides reporting numerous breaches.
More than 6,400 people have been killed in the conflict in Yemen. Another 2.8 million people have been displaced and more than 80 per cent of the population urgently needs humanitarian aid, according to UN figures.
