Peace talks between Yemen's warring parties end in Kuwait

The UN Yemen envoy officially declared on Saturday the end of the peace talks in Kuwait without making any breakthroughs to stop a 16-month civil war in Yemen.

The envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed also said during a press conference that the peace negotiations between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi group and their allies will resume within a month.

"We are leaving Kuwait today but the Yemeni peace consultations will continue," he said, adding that "we received guarantees from the Yemeni warring parties about their commitment to resume the talks again in a month, and the location will be decided later."

Ould Cheikh also expressed his gratitude for the Kuwaiti government and denied the reports that Kuwait will host another round of the Yemeni peace talks.

According to the UN envoy, the two Yemeni peace delegations will have another chance and more time in order to discuss their leaderships and the next steps to achieve peace during the upcoming talks.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik Mekhlafi, who heads the government delegation to the Kuwait-based talks, tweeted that "consultations ended today without achieving the peace that we sought for our people and country due to the putschists' intransigence."

Yemeni political experts said that the talks of over 112 days failed because the Houthis and their allies insisted on being part of a unity government and refused to sign a UN-proposed draft introduced last week.

However, the UN envoy rejected claims that the talks in Kuwait have failed or collapsed, saying that "bringing the two sides to a negotiation table was an achievement in itself."

On Sunday, the Yemeni government announced that its peace delegation agreed to sign a UN-proposed agreement in a bid to bring security and stability to the war-torn country.

The draft agreement called on Houthi militias to withdraw from Sanaa and other Yemeni provinces, hand over heavy arms and return government facilities they occupied.

It also demanded the Shiite Houthi group to release the political detainees, lift siege imposed on Yemeni cites within 45 days and allow the entrance of humanitarian aids to hard-reaching areas.

Earlier in the day, Houthi rebels and political allies of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh officially announced names of the power-sharing political council to govern Yemen.

The political council is made up of 10 senior officials, who dominate the decision making in the country, said a joint statement carried by Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

The declaration was made in a ceremony in the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa.

They said the council's next missions are to jointly run the country, cooperate militarily against Yemeni government forces and form a new "national government."

Pro-government forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched on Saturday fresh military offensives in an effort to gain more territory near Sanaa and expel the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Yemeni military sources said that heavy shelling and intensified armed confrontations rocked the eastern part of Sanaa, particularly Nehim district.

They said that Saudi-led warplanes provided air power to help the pro-government forces make more ground advances towards Sanaa.

Over 16 Saudi-led airstrikes have targeted different positions held by pro-Houthi forces in Nehim district since Saturday morning.

More than 25 fighters and 14 government soldiers were killed during the fighting that flared up just few hours before the announcement of ending the Kuwait-based talks.

According to local media outlets, the government forces warned the residents of Sanaa not to shelter Houthis or allow them to enter their homes, and to stay away from Houthi-controlled military positions.

Houthis and Saleh's forces hold most of Yemen's northern regions while government forces backed by Saudi-led military coalition share control of the rest of the country.

The civil war with ground battles and airstrikes have already killed more than 6,400 people, half of them civilians, injured more than 35,000 others and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian agencies. Endit