SANAA, Yemen (AP) – Yemen’s exiled government and Shiite rebels who control the capital failed to agree on even a temporary cease-fire Friday as they wrapped up U.N.-brokered talks aimed at ending a conflict that has killed over 1,000 civilians and displaced more than a million since March.
The collapse of the talks came as Saudi-led airstrikes continued to pound the Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies, killing at least 10 civilians in a northern rebel stronghold, witnesses said. The U.N. meanwhile called for $1.6 billion to help millions of Yemenis avoid a “looming humanitarian catastrophe.”
U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who had been mediating the talks in Geneva, told reporters that the two sides broadly favor a cease-fire that would have rebels withdraw from cities and towns seized in recent months and the coalition halt its air campaign against them.
“We didn’t reach a final agreement. We have to be clear and transparent,” he said, adding that a deal “will require further consultation.”
“I come out with a certain degree of optimism,” he said. “It’s a matter of time.”