25 April 2018•Update: 26 April 2018
By Asim Abdul Salam
SANAA
Yemen’s president and the UN envoy to Yemen on Wednesday discussed plans to revive consultations in a third meeting between the two sides in a month, Yemen’s official news agency SABA reported.
According to SABA, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi received the UN’s Martin Griffiths at his residence in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where Griffiths arrived to start a second tour to revive stalled consultations on the war-torn country scheduled to also include the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
During the meeting, Griffiths briefed Hadi on his vision for peace in Yemen in both its political and field aspects, saying he had already proposed them on Tuesday to the UN Security Council as a general framework, based on three reference points, SABA reported.
The three reference points in Griffiths’ vision are the Gulf Initiative, International Resolution 2216, and the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference in Yemen.
For his part, Hadi reiterated his “permanent position towards peace as a strategic option for the return of security and stability to Yemen and the region in general, which is based on international references.”
In his briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday, Griffith pledged to present a roadmap for peace in Yemen within two months.
Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its allies -- who accuse the Houthis of serving as an Iranian proxy force -- launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.
The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks held in Kuwait failed to produce any tangible breakthroughs.
The ongoing violence has devastated basic services, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation in Yemen as one of “the world’s worst humanitarian disasters in modern times.”
