Sanaa---Huthi Shiite rebels and Yemen's exiled government agreed Friday to attend UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending a more than two-month war that has cost over 2,000 lives.
The Geneva meeting, provisionally set for June 14, would be the first significant effort to stop the fighting which has led to what the United Nations has called a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation.
A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the Iran-backed rebels and their allies for 10 weeks, raising tensions between Riyadh and its regional rival Iran, while rights groups have expressed concerns about the extent of civilian casualties.
"We accepted the invitation of the United Nations to go to the negotiating table in Geneva without preconditions," said Daifallah al-Shami, a senior member of the rebels' political wing.
Speaking to AFP, he added that the rebels "will not accept conditions" from other parties.
Ezzedine al-Isbahi, information minister of the Yemeni government exiled in the Saudi capital, said it would also send a delegation to Switzerland.
UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the Security Council on Wednesday that the government would attend but that he was still in consultation with the rebels.
"The government agreed to participate in the Geneva talks," Isbahi told AFP.
He said the meeting would involve "consultations on implementing Resolution 2216" which the Security Council passed in April.
The resolution imposed an arms embargo on the Huthi rebels and demanded they relinquish seized territory.
The Geneva negotiations would try to secure a ceasefire, agreement on a Huthi withdrawal plan, and increased deliveries of humanitarian aid, according to diplomats who attended Wednesday's closed-door Security Council briefing.
- Millions need aid -
Since overrunning the capital Sanaa in September, the Huthis have seized much of the country, prompting the Saudi-led bombing campaign in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia feared the Huthis would take over all of Yemen and move it into the orbit of Shiite Iran.
Pro-government forces have been fighting the rebels and their allies in a war which the United Nations says has forced more than half a million people from their homes.
The Security Council this week heard a report from new UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien who described Yemen's humanitarian crisis as "catastrophic," with 20 million civilians -- 80 percent of the population -- in need of aid.
Confirmation that the government and rebels would both send delegations to Switzerland follows a flurry of diplomacy after the United Nations was forced to abandon plans to convene talks last week.
AFP
