Geneva // Iran-backed Yemeni rebels on Tuesday ruled out negotiations with the internationally recognised exiled government.
The Houthi delegation finally arrived in Geneva for the talks a day late after being stranded in Djibouti.
But rebel negotiating team member Mohammed Zubairi defiantly told reporters: “We refuse any dialogue with those who have no legitimacy.”
He said they instead wanted talks with Saudi Arabia, which has been leading an aerial campaign against the rebels since March 26.
The United Nations is desperately trying to get the rebels, who control a large swath of terrain including the capital Sanaa, and the exiled government to agree to a humanitarian truce.
But the Houthi’s stance meant any hope of a thaw appeared bleak. There were also other outstanding issues, including the rebels’ inflated presence, UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
He said before the rebels joined the talks, the UN wanted to ensure they adhered to “the 7+3 principle, that is seven principals and three advisers” on the negotiating team. However, the rebels appear to have turned up with a much more substantial entourage.
Meanwhile, the exiled president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi repeated on Tuesday that his side was only prepared to discuss with the rebels a Security Council resolution ordering their withdrawal from seized territory.
Speaking in Jeddah, the president told an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that “our delegation in Geneva will only discuss the terms of applying [Resolution] 2216.”
The meeting was attended by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, whose country is accused of backing the rebels.
Mr Hadi appealed at the OIC meeting for more humanitarian aid, a call supported by Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Sabah, whose country last week announced US$100 million (Dh367m) in assistance for Yemen.
The OIC had summoned the foreign ministers of its 57 member states to “consider the situation in Yemen and ways to ensure the return of security and stability there.”
The rebel’s arrival in Geneva came after their UN-chartered plane left Sanaa on Sunday afternoon but was forced to wait in Djibouti for nearly 24 hours, forcing them to miss Monday’s opening of the talks and a meeting with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
The rebels accused Egypt and Sudan of not allowing their plane to fly through their airspace.
“It was Saudi Arabia which asked its allies” to take the action with the aim of “torpedoing the negotiations”, Adel Shujah, another member of the rebel team, said after arriving in Geneva.
He said they were able to travel on to Switzerland after the United States and Oman intervened.
Yemen has been wracked by conflict between the rebels, who are supported by military units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and troops allied to Mr Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia in February.
On Monday, Mr Ban underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian truce in Yemen for at least two weeks to mark the holy month of Ramadan.
Ghaleb Al Mutlak, a Yemeni delegate to the UN peace talks from the southern separatist movement, said all sides agree there must be a ceasefire.
“We’re still discussing details,” he said.
The UN has described Yemen’s humanitarian crisis as “catastrophic”, with 80 per cent of the population — 20 million people — in need of aid.
Both experts and some participants are pessimistic about the outcome of the talks. The positions of the two warring sides are so divergent that they will not be sitting in the same room and the UN will be holding separate consultations with them.
*Agence France-Presse
