Yemen's warring sides agree to ceasefire ahead of talks

14/12/2015| IslamWeb

A seven-day ceasefire in Yemen is to start on Monday, a day before UN-sponsored peace talks in Switzerland, officials on both sides of a war said.

Yemen's foreign minister, Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi, who will lead President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's delegation to the UN talks, said that fighting would stop on "the evening of December 14".

"We are going to the talks with serious intentions and we hope that the other side abides by that," he told the Reuters news agency.

A spokesperson for the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels confirmed the agreement to cease hostilities.

"Based on what had been agreed upon, there will be a halt of the aggression on the 14th of this month," Mohammed Abdul-Salam told a news conference in the capital Sanaa.

The Houthis have been locked for nine months in war with forces loyal to Hadi's exiled government, who are backed by air strikes and ground forces from a Saudi Arabia-led coalition.

'A real chance'

The UN invited Hadi's government and the Houthis to peace negotiations after the two sides agreed on a draft agenda and ground rules.

A previous round of peace talks in June failed to reach an agreement.

This time "there is a real chance for a breakthrough", according to Emirati analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, who believes "there will be concessions from both sides". The United Arab

Emirates is part of the Arab coalition and has lost dozens of troops to the conflict.

PHOTO CAPTION

Yemenis walk through a street in the old city of San’aa, Yemen, 13 December 2015.

Al-Jazeera