{"id":13701,"date":"2018-09-03T09:23:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T09:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13701"},"modified":"2018-09-03T09:23:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T09:23:48","slug":"yemen-government-announces-pay-rise-after-mass-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13701","title":{"rendered":"Yemen government announces pay rise after mass protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nADEN: Yemen\u2019s warring parties will not meet directly at UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva this week, likely to focus on a prisoner exchange deal and the fate of a key port, government officials said Sunday.<\/p>\n

\nThe UN has invited Yemen\u2019s government and the Iran-backed Houthi militia to Geneva for talks which open Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nBoth parties have confirmed they are sending high-level delegations to the talks, but officials say expectations of a breakthrough are low.<\/p>\n

\nUN envoy Martin Griffiths has said the talks are aimed at charting a path forward to revive UN-backed negotiations which broke down in 2016. The Yemeni government says the meetings will likely focus on a prisoner exchange deal and the fate of embattled Hodeida, the Houthi-held port city.<\/p>\n

\nYemen\u2019s Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Yamani told AFP the meetings \u201cwill not be face-to-face and depend on how well the UN envoy manages the two sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe consultations will be indirect, unless there is some progress that can be made directly,\u201d said Abdullah Al-Olaimi, head of Yemen\u2019s presidential office and a member of the Geneva delegation.<\/p>\n

\nYemen\u2019s government has openly said it has low expectations for the talks, blaming the Houthis for refusing to make concessions.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur expectations are limited to the possibility of progress in the question of prisoners and detainees,\u201d Yamani said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI think this is the chance to succeed in securing the release of prisoners, and I believe the other party is also willing and ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe US said on Sunday it \u201cfully supported\u201d Griffiths\u2019 efforts.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is imperative that all parties work toward a comprehensive political solution to avoid further harm to the Yemeni people,\u201d said state department spokesperson Heather Nauert.<\/p>\n

\nThe UN has set a low bar for the talks \u2014 the first since 106 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to yield an agreement between the government and Houthi militia in 2016.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe aim of this first round of consultations is to better understand how committed both parties are to the framework for formal negotiations … and to come to some conclusions about how those negotiations may start,\u201d said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.<\/p>\n

\nIn July, the Yemeni government demanded the release of all prisoners held by the Houthis as a condition for the start of peace talks.<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking on condition of anonymity, a government source said the delegation would demand the release of 5,000 prisoners while the Houthis were hoping for the liberation of 3,000 of their fighters.<\/p>\n

\nRights group Amnesty International in July said it feared violations in a string of Yemeni prisons could amount to war crimes.<\/p>\n

\nThe Geneva talks will also look at the economy in Yemen, long the Arab world\u2019s most impoverished country.<\/p>\n

\nIn 2014, the Iran-backed Houthis overran the capital, driving out the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and setting up a parallel government in Sanaa.<\/p>\n

\nThe rebels, however, have been unable to pay the salaries of many civil servants for months, according to reports from the capital.<\/p>\n

\nYamani said the government could step in to help pay the overdue salaries, a move likely aimed at strengthening the state\u2019s grip on the national economy and boosting its standing in militia-held areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ADEN: Yemen\u2019s warring parties will not meet directly at UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva this week, likely to focus on a prisoner exchange deal and the fate of a key port, government officials said Sunday. The UN has invited Yemen\u2019s government and the Iran-backed Houthi militia to Geneva for talks which open Thursday. Both parties…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}