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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that peace talks between the warring parties in Yemen should be held in early December in Sweden.
US envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths arrives at Sana'a airport, Yemen, November 21, 2018. REUTERS / Mohamed al-Sayaghi ???
Western countries are calling for a renewed ceasefire and peace efforts to end the conflict of more than three years, perceived as an indirect war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in 2015, supporting government forces fighting the Houthi group allied with Iran. The majority of the Yemeni population is now led by the Houthis, while the government in exile controls part of the south.
Yemeni Yemeni envoy Yemen, Martin Griffiths, told the Security Council on Friday that Yemeni parties had given "strong assurances" that they were committed to peace talks that were going to take place. 39 he hopes to hold in Sweden before the end of the year.
"It looks like very early in December, in Sweden, we will see both the Houthi rebels and the recognized US government," Mattis told reporters.
An attempt to hold peace talks in Geneva in September was dropped after three days of waiting for the Houthie delegation.
Mattis also said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had stopped their offensive operations around the key port city of Yemen, Hodeidah, and that despite some fighting, the front lines had not changed for at least 72 hours.
Griffiths was on Wednesday in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and was due to travel to Hodeidah on Thursday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port of Hodeidah handles 80% of the country's food imports and aid.
"It seeks to finalize arrangements for negotiations in Sweden, to revisit the US port's oversight role for the port and to draw attention to the need for a break in the fighting" said Dujarric.
Yemen's economy is in crisis and three quarters of its population, 22 million people, need help. Some 8.4 million people are on the brink of starvation, but the UK has warned that the number is expected to rise to 14 million.
The US Food Chief, David Beasley, went to Hodeidah last week and told reporters Friday in New York that the UN was "prepared, if necessary, if all parties wish "to resume the operational capacity of the port.
Additional report by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations
