ADEN // The Arab coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen has said it will observe a ceasefire from noon local time on Tuesday to coincide with the start of UN-brokered peace talks in Switzerland.
“The command of the coalition forces announces a ceasefire as of 12pm Sanaa time ... while retaining the right to respond to any breach of the cease-fire,” the alliance said in a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.
Earlier, the Saudi-led coalition, which has been leading the war against the Iran-backed rebels since March, announced that a senior Saudi commander and an Emirati officer were killed during operations in Yemen.
Saudi Colonel Abdullah Al Sahyan and Emirati officer Sultan Al Ketbi died while supervising operations to liberate the south-western Taez province, the coalition said.
Also on Monday, a member of the coalition-backed government’s delegation at peace talks, Mueen Abdulmalek, said the ceasefire would start at midnight local time.
“We hope the militias will commit to the ceasefire this time,” he said, referring to the rebels.
A presidency official confirmed the truce was agreed by president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
The coalition said the ceasefire would last for seven days and would be “renewed automatically in the event of the commitment of the other party”.
The government has also said the latest truce would last seven days and was renewable.
The talks beginning on Tuesday are being held at an undisclosed location in Switzerland and are open-ended.
A lull in fighting is sorely needed in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest nation, where an estimated 80 per cent of the population requires humanitarian aid.
Militants such as ISIL have exploited the violence, gaining ground and carrying out deadly attacks against both sides of the conflict.
Yemen’s conflict has pitted local forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in support of Mr Hadi’s government against the Iran-backed Houthis and renegade troops still loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Previous UN efforts have failed to narrow differences, and past ceasefires were broken.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s presidency described the salin Saudi and Emirati officers as “martyrs” who died in an honourable battle”. It also praised the coalition’s role in supporting “Yemen’s legitimate authority in regaining control of state institutions”.
A Yemeni military source said they were killed when rebels fired a rocket at a coastal road in Taez Loujain.
Fierce fighting between the rebels and pro-Hadi forces continued on Monday in the southern Daleh province, witnesses said.
Both pro-Hadi forces and insurgent groups have traded barbs over each side’s willingness to stick to the truce.
And there has been no word from Mr Saleh or his General People’s Congress party, which is represented at the Switzerland talks.
The warring sides have agreed to talks despite protracted differences, including over UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls for rebels to withdraw from key cities and surrender their weapons.
The government and its Gulf allies say the resolution is a prerequisite for peace.
According to the UN envoy, talks will focus on four main areas, including the terms of a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of armed groups from areas they control.
The Houthis, who have long complained of marginalisation, seized government headquarters in Sanaa in September 2014, several months after advancing from their northern stronghold of Saada.
They later encroached on second city Aden, forcing Mr Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia.
In November, Mr Hadi returned to Aden and declared it his provisional capital.
Under cover of coalition warplanes and backed by Arab soldiers and heavy weaponry, pro-government forces have recaptured five southern provinces, including Aden, since July.
The United Nations says more than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen, about half of them civilians, and more than 27,000 wounded since March.
* Agence France-Presse
