Syeria:UN-sponsored talks for establishing peace in Yemen have ended without a breakthrough, as fighting continues between government forces and rebels near the capital Sanaa.
The adjourning of the talks on Saturday came after Houthi fighters and the party of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, rejected a UN peace plan and announced the appointment of a 10-member governing body to run Yemen.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN envoy on Yemen, announced on Saturday a month-long suspension of the talks, held in Kuwait for more than 90 days, but denied their failure.
emeni minister denies civilians deliberately targeted by coalition”We will be leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace talks are continuing,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in Kuwait City.
“We have guarantees and commitments from the two sides that they are ready to return to the negotiating table,” he said, while criticising the creation of the council by the Houthis and their allies.
“We condemn any unilateral step.”
The rebels said the plan, which had been accepted by Yemen’s internationally recognised government, did not meet their key demand for a unity government – a condition that amounts to an explicit call for President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s removal.
Meanwhile, forces loyal to Hadi launched a major new offensive east of Sanaa to “liberate the district of Nehem”, the pro-government sabanew.net news agency said on Saturday.
The area is a key route to the capital, which has been under Houthi control since 2014.
“The army and the resistance have managed to liberate a number of important military positions that had been controlled by the coup militias, most prominent of which is the Manara mount which overlooks the centre of Nehem district,” the agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.
Local sources told Al Jazeera on Sunday that intense air strikes by the Arab coalition hit Houthi gatherings and camps in Mokha, Haradh and Midi, eastern Yemen, as well as in Nehem.
