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Yemen govt team to leave collapsed peace talks

Foreign minister Abdelmalek Al Mikhlafi said president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi had authorised the government delegation to accept the agreement on condition that the rebels also sign it before August 7.

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According to sources close to the delegates at the Kuwait talks, the government accepted the deal following pressure from Saudi Arabia which wants to show the rebels are unwilling to accept a political solution.

U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the rebels’ move “contravenes” their commitment to the peace process and “represents a grave violation” of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216.

The Kuwait talks have failed to make any significant headway amid fundamental disputes over the agenda.

“The rebels are seeking to legitimise the coup and to engage in a national government before withdrawing from the cities they control or before they put down arms”, Al-Mekhlafi said.

Huthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam, however, said on Twitter before the government announcement that the rebels insist on a comprehensive and complete solution, and rejected what he called “half solutions”.

The delegation was returning to Riyadh, where it is based, after informing the United Nations envoy that it was ready to sign the proposed peace plan, Emrani said.

A truce that began in April has slowed the momentum of fighting, in which a Saudi-led coalition has been trying to restore Hadi to power and roll back Houthi gains, but violence continues nearly daily.

The negotiations being held in Kuwait were launched after the United Nations secured an agreement on a ceasefire in the war-torn country.

Prospects for progress in the talks dimmed further on Thursday when Houthi rebels and their allies in the General People’s Congress (GPC), the political party of militarily powerful former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, said they had chose to form a political council to unilaterally rule the country. Most of the discussions focused on the type of the government to run Yemen during a transition period.

Hadi’s exiled government is backed by a military coalition of Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a conflict against Shiite rebels, who overran the Yemeni capital in late 2014.

The devastating civil war has killed more than 6,000 people and caused a humanitarian crisis.

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Meanwhile, a police officer was killed Saturday in Aden when a bomb planted in his vehicle in Yemen second city Aden blew up, a security official said.

Houthi-led bloc says to set up body to run Yemen with peace talks stalled