Warring factions in Yemen have confirmed they will attend peace talks in Sweden, UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said Friday.<\/p>\n
“This is a crucial moment for Yemen. I have received firm assurances from the leadership of the Yemeni parties,” said Griffiths at a UN Security Council meeting. “They are committed to attending these consultations. I believe they are genuine.”<\/p>\n
Griffiths said he will head to Sanaa next week, and would travel with the delegation to the consultations in Sweden, if necessary.<\/p>\n
The UN envoy noted he was close to “solving the preparatory issues that will allow us to make this happen.”<\/p>\n
“With increased international attention, has come a renewed commitment from the Yemeni parties to work on a political solution,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014 when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa, and al-Hudaydah province.<\/p>\n
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains and shoring up the country\u2019s pro-Saudi government.<\/p>\n
The violence has devastated Yemen\u2019s basic infrastructure, including its health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as \u201cone of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times\u201d.<\/p>\n
The announcement by Griffiths came after the chief of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley gave an update on the humanitarian situation in Yemen.<\/p>\n
“This is not on the brink of a catastrophe. This is a catastrophe,” Beasley said at a news conference.<\/p>\n
According to the WFP, 18 million people in Yemen are food insecure, and between 12 to 14 million people are severely food insecure.<\/p>\n
“These are people, literally, marching toward the brink of starvation,” Beasley added.<\/p>\n
Last week forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally-recognized government launched a fresh military operation to retake al-Hudaydah — and its two strategic seaports — from Houthi rebels.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the UN’s humanitarian affairs chief Mark Lowcock called for a cease-fire to the ongoing conflict, which led to a halt in clashes in the port city of al-Hudaydah, according to Yemeni security forces. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Warring factions in Yemen have confirmed they will attend peace talks in Sweden, UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said Friday. “This is a crucial moment for Yemen. I have received firm assurances from the leadership of the Yemeni parties,” said Griffiths at a UN Security Council meeting. “They are committed to attending these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":73097,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1023,"height":575,"file":"2018\/11\/yem-9-1.jpg","filesize":128173,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":73073,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/yem-9-1.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73098,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73073\/revisions\/73098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}