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Yemen's president rejects UN peace plan

Xinhua, October 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Saturday refused to take the peace plan by the UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed to solve the country's crisis, a government official told Xinhua.

President Hadi "has officially informed the UN envoy about his full rejection," said the government source on condition of anonymity, adding that the president denounced the plan as "far from solving the crisis," and said its contents "bare seeds of war in the country."

Meanwhile, a Yemeni military official called the plan "only a gateway towards more suffering and war instead of peace."

The official said that "peace in Yemen won't happen without ending the coup by the Shiite Houthi group which overran the capital Sanaa and other provinces in 2014."

The UN envoy arrived Saturday in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh to submit the plan to Hadi, but faced strong rejection, said political observers.

The envoy had also handed over a copy to the Shiite Houthis and their allies during his latest visit to Sanaa.

Pro-government Yemeni sources said that the peace plan was rejected by President Hadi because of its inconsistency with the GCC initiative, National Dialogue outcomes and the UNSC 2216 resolution.

Leaks of the new plan suggest a new government from the two-warring sides that would not be led by Hadi.

The situation in Yemen has deteriorated economically and politically since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government, backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Houthis and Saleh's forces hold most of Yemen's northern regions while government forces share control of the rest of the country including seven southern provinces.

The civil war, ground battles and airstrikes have taken more than 10,000 lives, half of them civilians, injured more than 35,000 people and displaced over two million, according to humanitarian agencies. Endit