UN-backed talks between Yemen’s warring parties ended before properly getting off the ground, with the UN envoy acknowledging that it had not been possible to convince the rebels to come to Geneva.
“We didn’t manage to get… the [Houthi] delegation from Sanaa to come here… We just didn’t make it,” Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva on Saturday.
He said it was “too early to say when next round of consultations will take place”.
Yemeni government representatives who had flown to Geneva to take part in the long-awaited UN-sponsored peace talks said they would return home on Saturday after the rebels failed to show up.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the government representative said the delegation had decided to return home after the talks were put on hold for three days.
The Houthi rebel delegation had declined to attend until the United Nations met several demands including providing guarantees it would be able to return to the Yemeni capital Sanaa afterwards.
More soon…
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
