DOHA, Qatar (AP) – Fragile peace talks aimed at ending fighting in Yemen are making progress as a truce largely holds, the U.N. envoy for the country asserted Sunday after the impoverished Arab nation’s government agreed to return to the negotiating table.
The Yemeni government last week announced it was suspending talks being held in Kuwait with Shiite rebels, accusing them of refusing to accept the legitimacy of the country’s internationally recognized president.
During a Saturday meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha, with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the emir of Qatar, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi agreed to send the government delegation back to the talks, according to a U.N. statement.
But inside Yemen, a fresh round of Saudi-led airstrikes hit the capital, Sanaa. Military bases on the outskirts of the city were hit in the first such strikes in a month, witnesses and military officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they feared repercussions or were not authorized to brief the media.
The former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a heavyweight inside the rebel movement, renewed his rejection of Hadi’s legitimacy and called the talks a “waste of time.”