Al Aber: Yemen’s exiled government backed out of UN-brokered peace talks as loyalist forces supported by a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive against Houthi rebels yesterday.
A military official said the offensive aimed to push the Iran-backed insurgents out of the oil-rich Marib province east of Sana’a and eventually move on the capital, which the rebels seized a year ago.
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi’s government, which has fled to Saudi Arabia, had said on Friday that it would join UN-mediated talks this week in Oman.
But in a short statement overnight, Hadi’s office said the government would not attend talks unless the rebels first accept a UN resolution demanding their withdrawal from territory they have captured. The government decided “not to take part in any meeting until the militia recognises Resolution 2216 and agrees to implement it without conditions,” the statement said.
The UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had announced that both the government and the rebels agreed to attend talks in Oman, the only Gulf state not in the Saudi-led coalition.
Previous attempts at negotiations to end the conflict have repeatedly collapsed.
Analysts have said the war is entering a new and potentially decisive phase as Gulf nations build up ground forces to battle the rebels in the capital and their northern strongholds. In July, loyalist troops freshly trained and equipped by the coalition pushed the rebels out of Aden and four other southern provinces.
Yesterday, Hadi loyalists launched the “largest and fiercest offensive since operations began in Marib province”, the military official said, adding that the rebels were targeted in the Jufeinah, Faw and Thatt-Alra areas. General Samir Shamfan, commander of the 23rd Mechanised Brigade based in Al-Aber, said about 12,000 soldiers have been assembled in the city some 270km east of Marib city. AFP
