Kerry’s new peace road came after his meeting this week in Jeddah with foreign ministers of British and Arab Gulf states to end Yemen civil war.
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KELEMEN: Secretary Kerry says he’s raised concerns about civilian casualties with his Saudi counterpart, Adel al-Jubeir, who says his country is being careful in its targeting unlike the Houthi rebels, who he says are laying siege to towns and villages, using children as soldiers and getting weapons from Iran.
Yemen’s exiled government has said it welcomes in principle a USA -backed plan to resume peace talks with Iran-backed rebels on the basis of forming a unity government.
“The threat potentially posed by the shipment of missiles and other sophisticated weapons into Yemen from Iran extends well beyond Yemen and is not a threat just to Saudi Arabia and. the region”, has said Kerry.
The U.N. said air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in support of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were suspected of causing about half of all civilian deaths in Yemen.
Russian Federation has primarily targeted rebels, some backed by Saudi Arabia, who are fighting to overthrow president Bashar Al Assad, making Riyadh’s support for the plan crucial. “It is a threat to the U.S. and it can not continue”.
“We agreed on a renewed approach to negotiations with both a security and political track simultaneously working in order to provide a comprehensive settlement”, Kerry said during a press conference.
The coalition intervened in March a year ago to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Houthis and their allies seized much of Yemen.
United Nations -sponsored talks to end the 18-months of infighting collapsed earlier this month, when the Iran-allied Houthi began fighting again with the supporters of displaced interim President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
He also met with Foreign Minister Alawi bin Abdullah of Oman before a meeting with other Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Saudi Arabia’s extensive assistance to pro-Hadi militants, which started after Hadi fled to Aden in early 2015, has failed to undermine the Houthis and allies who control the capital, Sana’a.
“This leaves nothing for future speculation”, Kerry said. “This has a clarity to it about how confidence can be built, what the end game looks like, and how the parties get there”.
On Friday, the Houthis rejected Kerry’s call for the transfer of the group’s ballistic missiles.
The civil war has been going on for almost two years and has brought more than 9,000 deaths, of whom 3,800 were civilians, as well as displaced three million people.
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Kerry spoke of the “staggering” humanitarian impact of the war and announced an additional $189 million in aid in response to the crisis.
