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The long-awaited talks between the warring parties in Yemen overflowed on Saturday even before they actually began, after the Huthi rebels refused to go to Geneva and new fighting broke out on the ground.
UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said he had held "fruitful consultations" with the delegation representing the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, but acknowledged that he had not been able to convince the delegation rebel to go to the talks.
"We have not managed to bring in the Sanaa delegation," he told reporters.
"We just did not succeed," he said, insisting, however, that these efforts would continue to bring the parties together.
Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi defended his decision not to send a delegation to Geneva, calling on his supporters to fight and slam the government as "mercenaries" and "traitors".
"Our choice is steadfastness and resistance to aggression on all fronts," the rebel leader said in his first statement after the collapse of the talks.
The talks, which was to be the first meeting between Yemen's belligerents in two years, were to officially open Thursday, but the rebels' absence left Griffiths struggling to save them.
The Huthis, backed by Iran, powerful armed tribes at war with the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, have refused to take off from the rebels' capital, Sanaa, unless the UN meets a list of conditions. their delegation.
They accused the Saudi-led alliance of backing the Hadi government's plans to block their delegation in Djibouti, where their plane had to stop for Geneva.
They hinted that they feared a repeat of 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait were broken and that a rebel delegation found themselves stranded in Oman for three months due to the fact that they were in danger. an air blockade.
Complicating matters further, fighting again intensified on the ground on Friday as government forces attempted to close in on the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida, which was expected to be one of the most main topics of discussion in Geneva.
– "To appease" the rebels? –
The head of the Yemeni government delegation, Foreign Minister Khaled Yamani, accused the rebels of "trying to sabotage" the negotiations and condemned them for "total irresponsibility".
"I think their absence from Geneva is part of their panic after losing their grip on areas under their control," he told reporters.
He also severely criticized Griffiths for "appeasing" the rebels by refusing to blame the failure of the talks outright.
Asked at Saturday's press conference that was to blame for the stillborn negotiations, Griffiths had insisted that "it's not up to me to find fault." It's my job to find an agreement".
Angry Yamani, who said the UN envoy in private conversations had "expressed dissatisfaction over the unjustified position" of the Huthis not to come to Geneva.
"I believe that the words (public) of the special envoy (…) have unfortunately appeased the plotters and have given them excuses," he said, urging the UN to be " more firm ".
– No "fundamental blockage" –
Griffiths, who said earlier this week that he thought the Geneva talks would offer a "signal of hope" to the Yemeni people, said Saturday that his own hope had not faded.
"The restart is a very delicate and fragile moment," he said.
"I do not see this as a fundamental blockage in the process."
He praised the "progress" made in recent days' discussions with the government delegation on so-called confidence-building measures, including issues such as prisoner swaps and the reopening of Sana'a airport.
Griffiths said he would travel to Muscat and Sanaa over the next few days to set the stage for future discussions, but hinted that he could engage in separate discussions with both sides.
He stated that it was "too early to say when will the next round of consultations take place".
Griffiths faced difficult challenges from the start.
He is the third UN representative in Yemen since 2014, when the Huthis invaded the capital and led the Hadi government into exile, but all previous attempts to resolve the conflict failed.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies stepped in on behalf of the government in 2015, triggering what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Talks between the belligerent parties in Yemen, supported by the UN, ended on Saturday before starting properly, as the UN envoy acknowledged that it was not possible to convince the rebels to go to Geneva.
