GENEVA // Yemen peace talks ended in Geneva on Friday with no agreement on a much-needed ceasefire, but the United Nations voiced optimism that a new round of talks could lead to a deal.
The UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said just getting the two sides to come to the Swiss city was “a great achievement” and that he had seen “certain positive signs” in his discussions with the two sides.
“We believe that if there is a further consultation we can reach this possibility of a ceasefire accompanied by a withdrawal [by the country’s rebels],” he said.
“There is in principle no disagreement on this basic element. We feel that it requires simply some further consultations and that we can achieve it pretty soon.”
However, no date has been set for further talks.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon launched the high-stakes negotiations on Monday with an appeal for a two-week humanitarian truce during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
But the two sides’ positions have been so far apart that they did not even sit in the same room, forcing Mr Ould Cheikh Ahmed to shuttle between them for separate consultations.
The fighting in Yemen pits Shiite rebels, known as the Houthis, and allied troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, extremist militants and loyalists of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia in February.
A Saudi-led coalition that supports the Yemeni government, began launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies in late March. Since then, more than 2,600 people have been killed, including 1,000 civilians.
Yemen’s exiled foreign minister, Riad Yassin, blamed the lack of progress in Geneva on the rebel delegation.
“We really came here with a big hope ... but unfortunately the Houthi delegation did not allow us really to reach real progress as we expected,” he said.
But, he added, the government delegation remained optimistic of a peaceful solution for Yemen “under the umbrella of the UN”.
Meanwhile, a member of the rebel delegation, Yehya Doueid, said the talks had not lasted long enough.
“The necessary time was not provided [by the UN] to allow these talks to end in an agreement,” he said.
As the talks wrapped up on Friday, the UN launched an appeal for US$1.6 billion (Dh5.9bn) to help millions of Yemenis avoid a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”.
“I am deliberately raising the alarm about the looming humanitarian catastrophe facing Yemen, where over 21 million Yemenis, 80 per cent of the countries population, are in need of some form of aid to meet their basic needs or protect their basic rights today,” the UN’s new humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brian, said in Geneva.
“These numbers are difficult to comprehend,” he said, but insisted that “we must not grow numb to the suffering of each and every individual who lies behind them”.
Money raised through the appeal will cover aid – including food, water and shelter – to 11.7 million of the most vulnerable people in need through to the end of the year.
Mr O’Brian described a nightmare situation in the impoverished country.
“People across the country are struggling to feed themselves and their families and basic services are collapsing in all regions of the country,” he warned, pointing out that millions of families have no access to clean water, proper sanitation or health care.
The appeal was revised up from a combined $1.02 billion requested in December and April for Yemen.
Only about $200 million of the needed cash has so far been received, the UN says.
Meanwhile, Saudi-led airstrikes continued to pound the Houthis on Friday, killing at least 10 civilians in a northern rebel stronghold, witnesses said.
The strikes targeted Sanaa, the southern city of Aden and the provinces of Lahj and Jouf.
Before the talks in Geneva, Yemen’s exiled government, now based in Saudi Arabia, had demanded the implementation of a UN Security Council resolution that required the rebels to withdraw from cities and towns, including the capital Sanaa.
The Houthis, meanwhile, had called for a temporary ceasefire, but the government rejected it, saying that the rebels had used a previous humanitarian pause to grab more land. Mediators in Geneva had hoped to broker at least a temporary ceasefire for Ramadan, which began on Thursday.
Mr Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the Houthis had signalled their willingness to implement the UN resolution in a proposal presented to him on Thursday, without elaborating on its contents. Another proposal called for deploying civilian observers to verify a ceasefire, he said.
“There is no doubt that there is ground for reaching a ceasefire accompanied by withdrawal. What is important is that we all remember that there is a miserable humanitarian situation in Yemen,” he said.
The UN envoy said he would return to New York to brief the security council.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
