The United Nations will continue to hold consultations on Yemen, as the real solution to the conflict exists, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said at a press briefing on Saturday.
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2018) The United Nations will continue to hold consultations on Yemen, as the real solution to the conflict exists, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said at a press briefing on Saturday.
The UN-meditated consultations between the parties to the long-lasting armed conflict in Yemen the Houthi rebel movement and the Yemeni government were set to start on Thursday in the Swiss city of Geneva. However, the Houthi delegation said on Wednesday that they would not be able to take part in the talks, claiming that the Saudi-led coalition, which controls the Yemeni air space, did not guarantee them free passage. According to the coalition, the Houthis had been authorized to leave but still preferred to abstain from talks. In spite of the absence of the Houthis, Griffiths held informal consultations with the Yemeni government's delegation.
"If I didn't think, if the Secretary General didn't think, that there was a desire for peace and that there was a real solution, we wouldn't be here wasting your time," Griffiths said.
Griffiths added that the United Nations would do what it could to accommodate the views of both parties.
"The fact that we haven't achieved what I wanted to achieve ... is not an exception to our push towards peace. We will do what is necessary to accommodate the views of the parties," Griffiths said.
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.
