In Riyadh, President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi s government said the rebels had “fired the bullet of mercy” killing off the talks.
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The UN has criticised an agreement signed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s party to form a political council to run the country.
The proposed council would include 10 members – five from each side.
According to the statement, the 10-member council is tasked with managing “state affairs politically, militarily, economically, administratively, socially and in security” based on the country’s constitution.
“The aim is to unify efforts to confront the aggression by Saudi Arabia and its allies”, the statement added, referring to the Saudi-led military coalition that began airstrikes against the rebels in March past year.
The resolution calls on the Huthis to withdraw from territories they occupied in 2014, to hand over their arms and return state institutions to the legitimate government.
Foreign minister Abdulmalek Al Mikhlafi, who is leading the government delegation in the UN-mediated talks, said the rebels had “missed an opportunity for peace which the Yemeni people needed”.
The accord as quoted by the sabanews.net cited what it called the global community’s failure to rein in the “arrogance of the Saudi aggression” as an important factor in the decision to ditch the peace talks.
“Announcing a unilateral governing arrangement is not in line with the peace process and endangers substantial progress made in Kuwait”, he added in posts on his official Twitter account.
Since 2014, Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, which is the country’s main opposition force.
In February a year ago, the rebels set up a “supreme revolutionary council” iafter announcing they had dissolved Yemen’s government and parliament.
Hadi ultimately extended his term in office, claiming he country wasn’t ready for an election, but lost the capital city of the Houthi government after a failed offensive against major Houthi cities in the far north. Hadi resigned in January of 2015, and Saudi Arabia attacked a few months later, vowing to reinstall him at all costs. The rebels have insisted on the formation of a unity government.
Rights groups have previously blamed the Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis for imposing a blockade on Yemen’s entry points, including the airport in the capital, Sanaa.
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Peace talks in Kuwait since then have done little to end fighting that has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million in the Arabian Peninsula state amid starvation and a humanitarian crisis.
