Kerry also said that reinstating stability to Yemen is important to alleviate the suffering of civilians and to stop extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (Isis) from taking further advantage of the power vacuum.
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The rebels had imposed sieges on the northern town of Taiz and control the Red Sea port of Hodeida, it said. “The multilateral meeting on Yemen is created to share ideas and initiatives for getting the political discussions back on track and trying to get a political solution”, the official said.
Kerry told reporters that he raised concerns about civilian causalities in Yemen in his meetings.
He additionally met with Omani Foreign Minister Alawi bin Abdullah before a meeting with other Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
The announcement of the new peace plan and the humanitarian assistance came the same day that a United Nations report found that airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are responsible for the majority of civilians killed in the country’s civil war.
On Saturday, a statement from the exiled government carried by the Saba news agency said: “The government is prepared to deal positively with any peaceful solutions…including an initial welcoming of the ideas resulting from the meeting in Jeddah that included the foreign secretaries of the US, the United Kingdom and Gulf states”.
The United Nations on Thursday called for the creation of an independent global body to investigate an array of serious violations in Yemen.
Those talks were suspended when the Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, appointed a council to govern Yemen.
Since the conflict broke out in March 2015, more than 3.1 million Yemenis have been displaced and more than 80 percent of the country-or 21 million people-are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Kerry announced another 189 million dollars allocated for the Yemeni population, highlighting that the United States is already the leading donor country.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states back rebels fighting Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces, and are members of the US-led coalition bombing IS in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. military has coordinated with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, helping ensure Saudi access to precision-guided munitions.
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A Saudi-led Arab coalition in March a year ago launched a military campaign against Huthi rebels as they closed in on UN-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his southern refuge in Aden. “We can not have this assertion that there is a crime or war crime”, Alnsour said. The Saba report was also carried by Iran’s Press TV.
