Yemeni govt accepts UN peace plan with reservations

By Zakaria al-Kamaali

SANAA (AA) - Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghr said Thursday that his government had accepted a peace plan proposed by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen.

Bin Daghr added, however, that the government had "reservations" about certain points of the plan, which, he said, "favor the Shia Houthi militia and its allies".

Speaking at a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Matthew H. Tueller, Bin Daghr said that, while the government accepted Ahmed’s plan "in principle", it rejected points that appear to "contradict previous frames of reference," according to Yemen’s official SABA press agency.

Bin Daghr stressed the government’s keenness to reach a lasting peace in Yemen "based on agreed-upon frames of reference, such as the Gulf Initiative, the results of earlier rounds of national dialogue, and UN Security Council resolutions -- especially UNSC Resolution 2216".

He went on to assert that the Houthis could not be allowed to keep heavy weapons, which, he said, would be used to "impose their will on the Yemeni people with the clear support of known regional powers" -- a not-so-subtle reference to Shia Iran.

Yemen has been wracked by chaos since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated in March of last year when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Muslim allies launched a major air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains and supporting Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.