Yemen gov't delegation departs Kuwait as rebels reject UN peace solution

The Yemeni government delegates left Kuwait on Monday after they signed a draft peace plan to end Yemen's civil war brokered by the United Nations, while rebel delegates rejected it, spokesmen said.

"We approved and signed the UN-brokered draft peace plan to end Yemen's civil war," Abdul Malik al-Mikhlafi, government delegation's spokesman, told a press conference upon their departure in the airport of the Kuwaiti capital.

"We are leaving now, and the ball is at the rebels' square," he said.

On the other side of the Kuwait City, delegates of the Shiite Houthi revolutionary group and its ally former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party were still in their hotel rooms.

Earlier, Hamza al-Houthi, rebel delegation's spokesman, said in a statement aired by Houthi-controlled Savage news agency that "the draft peace plan provided by the UN envoy cannot form a comprehensive consensus for an agreement."

No comment has yet been made by the UN Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The draft plan ordered rebels to abolish "presidential council and higher revolutionary committee withdraw from cities and hand over weapons back to the government forces according to the UN Security Council Resolution 2216."

Houthi armed group and forces loyal to former President Saleh forcibly seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, driving internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi with his government into exile.

The country has since ripped through a devastating civil war that drew in Saudi-led Arab military coalition to help the legitimate government regain control.

The war has killed over 6,400 people, mostly civilians, and displaced over two million residents. Endit