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UN-facilitated peace talks between Yemen's warring rivals suspended for two weeks

Xinhua, June 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN-facilitated peace negotiations aimed at ending Yemen's civil war officially halted in Kuwait on Wednesday and to be resumed in mid-July.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed officially declared in a brief statement posted on Twitter that the negotiations between Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Shiite Houthi group were suspended for two weeks.

Ould Cheikh said "talks will embark on a new phase in the next weeks. Delegations will meet their leaderships in coming two weeks and will return to Kuwait on July 15."

He added that "delegations must return with practical steps based on the recommendations of the previous discussions they had in Kuwait."

Political observers said the UN-brokered peace talks that kicked off in Kuwait City on April 11 failed to reach any tangible breakthroughs after two months of negotiations.

Delegates of the government strongly insist that they represents Yemen's sole legitimate governing authority, and call for the full implementation of last year's UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

The resolution orders Houthi militias to withdraw from Sanaa and all other cities occupied earlier, hand back weapons and release political prisoners before forming new sharing transitional government.

However, the Houthis and their allies, for their part, say that they represent the country's de facto rulers and urged to form a new transitional government before discussing withdrawal from cities and the other topics

The Houthi top leaders have also reaffirmed their demand for a consensus president to lead the transition in any peace deal, but government delegation have firmly rejected and insisted on implementation of UN resolution first.

In recent days, fighting intensified across the country's war-torn provinces, leaving dozens of people killed and many others injured from both sides.

The pro-Houthi forces keep trying to make ground advances against government-controlled southern provinces despite the cease-fire that came into force on April 10 and was supposed to pave the way for the Kuwait peace talks.

On the other side, pro-government forces supported by the Saudi-led coalition mobilized hundreds of fighters in northern Marib province in an apparent attempt to storm the capital Sanaa militarily.

The civil war has drawn in Saudi-led coalition in March 2015, in response to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's call to restore his internationally recognized government to the capital Sanaa.

The civil war has killed more than 6,000 people, half of them civilians, injured more 35,000 others, and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian aid agencies.

Yemen's conflict began after 2011 massive popular protests that demanded an end to the 33-year rule of then President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Endit