Kuwait City // The Yemen government’s delegation to UN-brokered peace talks will leave Kuwait on Saturday, signalling the collapse of four months of negotiations with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“Today, we are holding some farewell meetings ... and the delegation will leave on Saturday,” Mohammad Al Emrani, the delegation spokesman, said on Friday.
The delegation’s departure follows a rebel annoucement on Thursday that they planned to form a “supreme political council” to run the country together with the General People’s Congress, the party of their ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni president.
“There can be no more talks after the new coup,” Mr Al Emrani said, referring to the rebel plan.
“It must be made clear here that it is the Houthi-Saleh alliance that foiled the peace talks in Kuwait. They have shown that they were never serious about a peaceful settlement.”
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN special envoy to Yemen, was to meet the rebels later on Friday as well as ambassadors of the 18 countries backing the peace process.
The talks to end more than a year of conflict stalled mainly over the type of the government to run Yemen during a transition period.
The fighting has claimed more than 6,000 lives, forced nearly 3 million people from their homes and left more than 80 per cent of the population in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to UN figures.
* Agence France-Presse
