US calls for ceasefire, peace talks in Yemen

By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON (AA) – U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has called for a ceasefire in Yemen and the start of peace talks in the next 30 days.

“We want to see everybody around a peace table based on a ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border and then based on ceasing dropping of bombs,” Mattis said Tuesday during a speech at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.

"We have got to move toward a peace effort here, and we can't say we are going to do it sometime in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days,” he added.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.