Yemen offers rebels limited ceasefire as talks begin in Geneva

GENEVA // Yemen’s exiled government is willing to discuss a limited ceasefire with the Houthis if the Iran-backed rebels meet certain conditions, foreign minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla said on Monday.

Mr Abdulla, part of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi’s government in exile in Riyadh, said: “If they start complying with the UN resolution, release prisoners they are holding – more than 6,000, including the defence ministers and others, if they withdraw from Aden and Taez and other cities and stop killing innocent people, then you can discuss.”

A delegation of Yemen’s Houthi rebels was due to arrive in Geneva on Tuesday morning after their UN-chartered plane was delayed Djibouti. The rebels blamed Egypt, a member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been targeting them with airstrikes since March, for the delay.

Houthi leader Zeifullah Al Shami said Egypt refused to allow their plane to land at Cairo airport. However, the plane was able to take off for Geneva after Oman intervened diplomatically, he said.

Cairo denied the charge. The head of Egypt’s civil aviation authority, Mahmoud Zanaty, said Egypt had not received a request for the plane to land at any of its airports or pass through its airspace.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the plane left Djibouti at 1610 GMT and was due to arrive in Geneva early on Tuesday morning.

The delegation, which also includes loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Houthi ally, and representatives of other political groups, had left Sanaa on Sunday.

The delay meant the Houthis missed a meeting with the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who was to return to New York in Monday.

Before he left, the UN chief called for a halt to the fighting in Yemen at the beginning of Ramadan, which starts later this week.

Mr Ban, who met some of the delegations taking part in the talks, said he had “emphasised the importance of having another humanitarian pause, at least two weeks”.

“I’m urging them that, particularly during this Ramadan – which is a period for peace for people, and praying for peace – they must stop,” he said.

Such a pause will not be enough in itself to get aid to all needy Yemenis “given the obstacles to access and the scale of destruction”, Mr Ban said. He called for the warring factions to go further, agree on local ceasefires and withdraw fighters from cities.

A previous five-day pause was violated repeatedly, and aid groups said it was hardly sufficient to reach millions in the Arab world’s poorest country.

Yemen’s conflict pits the Houthis – who seized the capital, Sanaa, last year – and military units loyal to Mr Saleh against an array of forces, including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, extremist militants and loyalists of Mr Hadi.

The Saudi-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies on March 26, shortly after Mr Hadi fled a rebel advance on the south. Riyadh views the Houthis as a proxy of Shiite Iran, which supports the rebels but has denied arming them.

The talks in Geneva are expected to last two or three days. The UN has said they will start off as proximity talks – in which mediators meet separately with the various factions – with the hope of eventually getting everyone to sit around the same table.

“The parties have a responsibility to end the fighting and begin a real process of peace and reconciliation,” Mr Ban said, arguing that “the region simply cannot sustain another open wound like Syria and Libya”.

Inside the country, however, there were few signs of the violence abating, with airstrikes continuing in the capital and several other cities, including the southern port of Aden, central Taez, and the Houthi stronghold Saada.

The Houthis said they consolidated control of Al Jawf province bordering Saudi Arabia and planned to move forces to the frontier.

Mr Al Shami said the move followed heavy fighting with tribes and forces loyal to Mr Hadi, especially in the provincial capital, Hazm, leaving dozens of civilians dead.

Houthi-run television showed dozens of bodies lying in the streets of Hazm, while doctors and witnesses backed up reports of the deaths.

Security officials said the Saudi-led air campaign has been targeting the city since the Houthis took it over a day earlier, with airstrikes again picking up on Monday morning.

They said ground fighting with heavy weapons raged on in several other areas of Yemen, including Marib province, killing at least a dozen civilians.

Meanwhile in the eastern city of Mukalla, the officials said Al Qaeda’s local affiliate and its allies stormed the historic Rawdah mosque, detaining young people who had been singing and chanting against the extremist group, which seized the city earlier this year.

* Reuters and Associated Press