South Yemens Transition Council Says Received Invitation To Geneva Consultations

South Yemens Transition Council Says Received Invitation to Geneva Consultations

The Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist body in southern Yemen, received an invitation to the upcoming consultations in Geneva on Monday and urged "clarifications" from the United Nations before it will make a decision on attending.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2018) The Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist body in southern Yemen, received an invitation to the upcoming consultations in Geneva on Monday and urged "clarifications" from the United Nations before it will make a decision on attending.

On August 2, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said during a Security Council meeting that he planned to invite parties to the Yemeni conflict to Geneva on September 6 for the first round of consultations.

STC commander and a member of the councils presidium Lutfi Shatara wrote on Facebook that the council "has demanded clarifications on the invitation to participate in the Geneva talks and expects a response in order to make a decision on participation."

For the past several years, Yemen has been in the grip of a violent conflict between the government forces and the rebel Houthi movement. The war has caused a nationwide humanitarian catastrophe and claimed lives of thousands of people.

Separatists created their own transitional council of Southern Aden in May 2017. Their leader, Aidarus Zoubaidi, the governor of Yemen's Aden province, was dismissed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi shortly before. Media reports suggested that the United Arab Emirates could support the Southern Movement in Aden.

The first round of UN-sponsored talks on Yemen was held in Switzerland in 2015. The settlement failed due to the Houthis rejecting the UN peace plan. Several attempts have been undertaken to reach an agreement between the warring parties since then but all of them were equally unsuccessful.