UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths is working to ensure that the Houthi delegation arrives in Geneva for negotiations, the UN Information Service in Geneva said on Friday.
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2018) UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths is working to ensure that the Houthi delegation arrives in Geneva for negotiations, the UN Information Service in Geneva said on Friday.
Consultations on Yemen were supposed to start on Thursday. However, on Wednesday, the Houthi movement said that their delegation did not have permission from the Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemeni air space, to leave the city of Sanaa. However, according to coalition spokesman Turki Maliki, the Houthi delegation had been authorized to depart for the talks.
"[Griffiths] also met with diplomats, and he is still working on getting the Ansar Allah [Houthi] delegation to Geneva," Director of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) Alessandra Vellucci said at a briefing.
According to Velucci, Griffiths continues consultations with the Yemeni government delegation on humanitarian access, prisoner release and the reopening of Sanaa airport.
Yemen is engulfed in an armed conflict between the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
