A Yemeni government delegation discussed the humanitarian situation in the conflict-torn country and securing aid deliveries with UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in Geneva on Thursday, Foreign Minister Khaled Hussein Alyemany told Sputnik.
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th September, 2018) A Yemeni government delegation discussed the humanitarian situation in the conflict-torn country and securing aid deliveries with UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in Geneva on Thursday, Foreign Minister Khaled Hussein Alyemany told Sputnik.
UN-mediated talks between Yemen's warring parties were set to start in Geneva on Thursday. They were supposed to focus on reactivating the peace process in the country as well as confidence-building measures, such as the exchange of prisoners. The Houthi movement said on Wednesday that its delegation was prevented from leaving the city of Sanaa by the Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemeni airspace. Despite the absence of Houthis, Griffiths started informal consultations with the government delegation.
"We discussed the humanitarian dossier and the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, against reports that Houthis were stealing humanitarian aid," Alyemany, who heads the delegation, said.
The minister further noted that he had talks with Griffiths separately in the morning, while the entire delegation got a chance to met with the UN special envoy to Yemen later in the afternoon.
Yemen is engulfed in an armed conflict between the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
