Ali Abo Rezeg
08 August 2016•Update: 08 August 2016
By Zakaria al-Kamali
SANAA
UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on Monday called for reaching a political solution to the conflict in war-torn Yemen.
“There is no alternative to a political solution in Yemen,” Ould Cheikh said at a press conference in Saudi Arabia. “A military solution will not be possible” in Yemen, he said.
Yemen has been racked by chaos since late 2014, when the Shia Houthi group overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.
In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.
Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.
UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait between the Yemeni government and Houthis have failed to make any breakthrough for resolving the conflict.
The UN envoy insisted that peace talks between the Yemeni government and Houthis have not failed.
The coming period "will be allocated to reaching a comprehensive solution” to the crisis, he said, going on to call for the implementation of UN resolutions for resolving the Yemeni conflict.
On Saturday, Ould Cheikh said the UN-brokered peace talks have been suspended for one month.
