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Yemen's rebel Houthis, Saleh agree to join UN-sponsored peace talks

Xinhua, April 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Yemen's rebel Shiite Houthi group and its allies loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh have agreed to take part in the delayed peace talks sponsored by the United Nations, the group said on Wednesday.

In a letter to the UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on Tuesday, the Houthi group and its allies confirmed that their delegates will travel to Kuwait for the talks, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said in a statement.

"We also told Ould Cheikh Ahmed that we will preserve all rights to take any position if the other side failed to commit to halting military actions during the period of talks or sought to impose any agenda that we do not agree upon," Abdulsalam said.

The talks, aimed at ending a year of deadly war, were originally planned to start with negotiators from the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Monday in Kuwait.

But representatives of Houthis and Saleh have refused to leave the capital Sanaa, which is controlled by their movement, "demanding the cease-fire that began on April 10 be fully observed before they attend the talks."

The cease-fire between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi group was announced as a response to the Yemeni government's request for a truce from 2100 GMT on April 10 to the end of the Kuwait talks.

Officials close to Hadi's government said Houthis and Saleh have received guarantees from the UN that the cease-fire will be fully respected and the Kuwait talks will include permanent solutions.

The planned talks are the fifth round of negotiations held after all previous ones failed to achieve any progress.

In March, Cheikh Ahmed said the Kuwait talks will focus on five areas, namely, a Houthi withdrawal from Sanaa and other cities, the handover of light and heavy weapons to the government, adopting temporary security measures, returning the state institutions and ministries to the government, establishing a committee on political prisoners and the resumption of a comprehensive political dialogue. However, major differences remain. Endi