“We approved and signed the UN-brokered draft peace plan to end Yemen’s civil war”, Abdul Malik al-Mikhlafi, government delegation’s spokesman, told a press conference upon their departure in the airport of the Kuwaiti capital.
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The deal also abolishes the supreme political council by Saleh and the rebels and nullifies all their decisions.
Yemen has been torn apart by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels, allied with troops loyal to Saleh, stormed the capital, Sanaa, and later forced the government into exile.
The U.N. sponsored two rounds of peace talks a year ago – neither successful – with Kuwait talks in December crumbling under the weight of an outbreak of fierce fighting.
Saudi Arabia has said it intervened in the war to try to restore Hadi to power after Houthi forces began advancing on his temporary base in the southern port city of Aden previous year, and to roll back Houthi gains.
This condition is an explicit demand for the removal of the internationally recognised Hadi.
“The aim is to unify efforts to confront the aggression by Saudi Arabia and its allies”, they said in reference to the Riyadh-led Arab coalition that launched a military campaign against the rebels in March 2015 in support of Hadi.
Talks aimed at ending Yemen’s war, which had appeared on the brink of collapse after a major disagreement between the government and its Houthi militia foes, have been extended by a week, Ahmed said on Sunday. There was no immediate response from the government or from Houthi rebel leaders, whose negotiators have faced off in Kuwait since April in a renewed search for a peace deal. They said most Sarari residents had fled to neighboring communities.
Yemen’s government delegation to peace talks were leaving Kuwait on Monday after the rebel side rejected a draft peace plan proposed by the United Nations, its representatives said.
The agreement was struck earlier on Thursday between Saleh’s General Peoples’ Congress Party (GPC) and the Ansarullah movement to form a political council to run the country.
Another 2.8 million people have been displaced and more than 80% of the population urgently needs humanitarian aid, according to United Nations figures.
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Under the new plan, a political dialogue between various Yemeni factions would start 45 days after the rebels withdraw and hand over heavy weapons to a military committee to be formed by the president.
