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Reuters
JEDDAH
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday he had agreed in talks with Gulf Arab states and the United Nations in Saudi Arabia on a plan to restart Yemen peace talks with a goal of forming a unity government.
UN-sponsored negotiations to end 18 months of fighting in the impoverished country on Saudi Arabia's southern border collapsed this month and the dominant Iran-allied Houthi movement there resumed shelling attacks into the kingdom.
Speaking at a press conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel al Jubeir in Jeddah, Kerry said the conflict in which the kingdom has launched thousands of air strikes in favour of the exiled government had gone on too long and needed to end.
Kerry said the Houthis must cease shelling across the border with Saudi Arabia, pull back from the capital Sanaa which they took control of two years ago, cede their weapons and enter into a unity government with their domestic foes.
Yemen's internationally recognised government, based in Saudi Arabia, has made similar demands but insisted that the Houthis fulfil all those measures before any new government was formed.
However, Kerry suggested they could move ahead in parallel.
"We agreed on a renewed approach to negotiations with both a security and political track simultaneously working in order to provide a comprehensive settlement," Kerry said.
"The final agreement ... would include in the first phase a swift formation of a new national unity government, the withdrawal of forces from Sanaa and other areas and the transfer of all heavy weapons including ballistic missiles, from the Houthis and forces aligned to them to a third party," he added.
See also page 13
