Yemen: Houthis refuse to participate in peace talks if held in Riyadh

Shiite Houthi rebels will not take part in any peace talks if they take place in Riyadh, as Saudi Arabia is their “enemy” in the war in Yemen, a spokesman told AFP today.

On Tuesday, a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) official said the regional group wanted to hold a dialogue in Riyadh, where it is based, between the Yemeni government and Shiite Houthi rebels to end the war raging in Yemen for more than a year. seven years.

“We will accept any invitation to a dialogue that will not take place in our enemy countries,” said a Houthi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, assuring that the rebels “always reach out to peace.”

In Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, a catastrophic war has been raging since 2014 between the Iran-backed Houthis and the government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition whose main member is the United Arab Emirates.

The UN-sponsored diplomatic efforts to reach a peace agreement between the two sides have not yet borne fruit.

According to the UN, the war has killed nearly 380,000 people and caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

During a donors’ conference organized by the UN on Wednesday, they managed to raise only $ 1.3 billion of the $ 4.3 billion requested by the organization to address the deteriorating situation in Yemen, much of whose population is threatened by famine.

Source: Capital

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