Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Hamid Razzaq censured the slow pace of negotiations in Kuwait on the Yemeni crisis and the fruitless efforts of the UN, saying, “Unfortunately, nothing new has happened in the talks and we have not made any progress on key issues.”
Observer parties to the peace talks, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, are to propose a peace plan and the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed would try to impose the peace plan on the Yemeni groups, he went on to say.
Back in December, an Ansarullah delegation and fugitive former president Abd Rabbouh Mansour Hadi’s representatives began UN-brokered peace talks in Switzerland with the aim of reaching a solution to the country’s conflict. The talks led to a shaky truce that was repeatedly breached mainly by the Saudis before they officially announced an end to it on January 2.
The Houthi Ansarullah movement took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.
Saudi Arabia launched an aggression on Yemen in late March 2015 in a bid to return Hadi to power. Nearly 9,400 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.
Yemenis, in return, have been carrying out retaliatory attacks on the Saudi forces deployed in the country as well as targets inside Saudi Arabia.