Yemen's Hadi, UN envoy meet to discuss peace prospects

By Mubarak Mohamed

SANAA (AA) - Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi on Wednesday met with Martin Griffiths, the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, in Saudi capital Riyadh.

According to Yemen’s SABA news agency, the two men discussed the UN’s ongoing efforts to revive stalled Yemen peace talks.

At the meeting, Hadi reportedly stressed his support for the UN's mediation efforts, to which, he said, his government had “responded positively”.

“The Houthi militia, however, has not responded positively to the international community’s efforts to achieve peace in Yemen,” SABA quoted Hadi as saying.

“But they [the Houthis] aren’t calling the shots,” he added. “They are told what to do by the Iranian regime.”

Griffiths, for his part, reportedly praised “the positive cooperation shown by President Hadi and his government within the context of ongoing peace efforts”.

He also stressed the international community's “desire to end the conflict… and save the Yemeni people from the difficult situation they’re in”.

Yemen has been racked by violence since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its allies -- who accuse the Houthis of serving as an Iranian proxy force -- launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks held in Kuwait failed to produce any tangible breakthroughs.

The ongoing conflict has devastated Yemen’s public infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as one of “the worst humanitarian disasters in modern times”.