UN Special Envoy, Iranian Top Official Discuss Yemen, Efforts to Reach Full Ceasefire

MOSCOW/CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th August, 2020) UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths and a senior aide for political affairs of the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Asghar Khaji, have discussed the continued crisis in the war-torn nation and efforts to reach a comprehensive ceasefire across the country.

On Wednesday, southern separatists sitting in Yemen's Aden stated that they had suspended talks with the country's legitimate authorities and Saudi Arabia on the implementation of the November Riyadh peace deal over military hostilities conducted by the government-linked forces. The accord is aimed at putting an end to military confrontation between the belligerents.

"I had a very constructive meeting [on Wednesday] with Senior Assistant to #Iran's FM Ali Asghar Khaji. We exchanged views about the efforts to reach a nationwide ceasefire and create a conducive atmosphere to resume the political process in #Yemen," Griffith's office wrote on Twitter.

In the late hours of Wednesday, the Al-Masirah tv broadcaster run by the Iran-backed rebel Shia Houthi movement reported that the Saudi-led coalition � an ally of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi � had launched massive airstrikes on the group-controlled areas in the provinces of Marib, Al Bayda, Al Jawf, Al Hudaydah and Saada.

Yemen has been facing an armed conflict between the government forces led by Hadi and the Houthi rebels for around five years now. The situation has been complicated by the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which has seized power in Aden in the late summer of 2019 and seeks to secede from Yemen.

Despite the Riyadh agreement, the STC continued to strengthen their power in southern Yemen, ousting government supporters from military bases and government institutions.