U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday announced a fresh worldwide peace initiative for Yemen aimed at forming a unity government to resolve its 17-month-old conflict.
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The flurry of meetings were held after UN-mediated peace talks to bring an end to the war in Yemen were suspended earlier this month.
The conflict has killed at least 6,500 people, half of them civilians.
Mr Kerry announced almost 189 million United States dollars (£140 million) in additional humanitarian aid for Yemen, bringing the total amount of USA assistance to more than 327 million dollars (£250 million) since October 2015. Some 3 million people have also been displaced inside the Arab world’s poorest country. One Yemen expert, April Longley Alley of the International Crisis Group, sees that as a sign the U.S.is trying to distance itself from an air campaign that has devastated the country and has gone on much longer than anticipated.
“Unfortunately, the humanitarian situation in Yemen is very bad”, he told reporters. He said he raised concerns about civilian casualties in Yemen during his meetings in Saudi Arabia.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been launching deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia accuses the Houthis of being an Iranian proxy, which the rebels deny.
He also said that the shipments pose a threat to the USA which ‘cannot continue’.
The strikes came a day after the United Nations demanded an worldwide investigation in the killings of civilians in Yemen.
While in Saudi Arabia Thursday, Kerry said that the Houthis must withdrawal of forces from the capital city of Sana’a, which they took with the ousting of Hadi; cease shelling across the border into Saudi Arabia; forfeit their weapons and enter into negations over the unity government.
That brings the total U.S. humanitarian aid package to Yemen to more than $327 million in fiscal year 2016, the State Department said.
Mr Kerry arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday night and had a three-hour dinner with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman that lasted until almost 1am, according to USA officials. The two spoke briefly about the monarch’s health and an operation he had in the USA, apparently for back pain. His talks with Saudi leaders and other Gulf Arab states were also due to cover possible USA military cooperation with Russian Federation in Syria, a senior US official said. Kerry and al-Jubeir then met with their counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council – which includes the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Kingdom – to get the approval of its members on the new approach.
Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani attended the meeting. He also announced an aid package to the war-torn country, where thousands of civilians have died in Saudi-led bombings.
“The US administration with such remarks is itself becoming a partner in the child killings and war crimes committed by the Saudi regime against the innocent people of Yemen”.
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He said the United States is “deeply troubled” over Saudi photographs showing Iranian-supplied missiles being positioned along the Saudi-Yemen border, and rocket attacks fired at Saudi Arabia’s southern border from Yemen.
