Yemen's President Hadi welcomes 72-hour cease-fire

By Mohamed al-Shaberi

RIYADH (AA) – Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said Wednesday that his administration would "deal positively" with an imminent cease-fire between Yemen’s warring parties.

He made the assertion at a meeting with U.S. and U.K. ambassadors to Yemen -- Matthew H. Tueller and Edmund Fitton-Brown -- held at his temporary residence in Saudi capital Riyadh.

According to Yemen’s official SABA news agency, Hadi expressed his government's keenness to achieve peace "with a view to alleviating the effects of war and siege, which have become unbearable".

"In light of our responsibility to our nation and people, we have reacted positively to the international community’s past [peacemaking] efforts," he said, citing previous peace talks in Geneva and Kuwait.

"Unfortunately, the perpetrators of the coup have spoiled these efforts with their constant prevarication," Hadi said, in reference to the Shia Houthi militant group.

The upcoming 72-hour cease-fire in Yemen is slated to come into effect at midnight Wednesday local time.

"We will deal positively with the upcoming truce, as we prefer peace to the alternative," he added.

The U.S. and U.K. ambassadors, for their part, stressed their countries’ desire to see humanitarian assistance allowed into Yemen and the ongoing siege of several Yemeni cities lifted.

The two diplomats also said that the international community would deal "firmly" with cease-fire violations.

On Monday, the UN unveiled a plan for a three-day truce between Yemen’s warring parties to go into effect late Wednesday night.

In a statement, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said he had received assurances from all parties to the conflict that they would respect the terms of the cease-fire.

Yemen has been racked by chaos since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

Last week, the U.S. directly intervened in the conflict -- for the first time -- with a cruise-missile strike on a coastal area of Yemen held by the Houthis.