UN awaits response from rebels to peace roadmap

The UN envoy for Yemen yesterday presented a proposal to the Houthi rebels and their allies on advancing prospects for peace as protests marred the final day of his talks in Sanaa.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the rebels would give their response to the written roadmap on political and security arrangements in the coming days.
Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the envoy’s hotel in the rebel-held capital, accusing him of siding with the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government and demanding that he leave the country.
“All parties must co-operate fully and swiftly to support political alternatives to secure lasting peace guided by a conviction that violence is never a viable solution,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.
“The previous weeks and months confirmed that there are no winners in war and violence is never a viable solution.”
The envoy called for a return to a cessation of hostilities after a 72-hour ceasefire to allow aid deliveries officially ended at midnight Saturday as the two sides traded accusations of violations.
Peace talks held in Kuwait ended in deadlock in August.
The United Nations is pushing a plan that would provide for a unity government, the withdrawal of the rebels from Sanaa and other areas, and the handover of weapons.
“Yemeni men and women have found themselves trapped in a deadly crossfire for too long and they are paying the price for the indiscriminate violence in the country. This must stop,” he said.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed visited the site of a community hall that was bombed during a funeral ceremony on October 8, killing more than 140 people, including the mayor of Sanaa and senior Houthi military officials.
The envoy stressed the urgent need to open up Yemeni airspace to allow commercial aircraft and to allow the evacuation of some of the hundreds of injured for treatment.