Cairo-A comprehensive peace agreement to the current crisis in Yemen will see the light in the next coming days and will be presented to Yemen’s warring parties currently in Kuwait to attend the peace consultations, Yemeni political sources revealed Wednesday.
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that all parties attending the talks are currently holding extensive meetings to come up with a solution that “would not oppose the international decisions.”
According to the sources, any agreement in Yemen “could be subject to further discussions because all parties supervising the peace talks have agreed on both conflicting and positive points.”
Members from the Houthi militias and loyalists of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government resumed their peace consolations in Kuwait last Tuesday in an attempt to end the ongoing war in Yemen.
U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed works on achieving a comprehensive political solution, in collaboration with ambassadors of countries concerned by the Yemeni war. This solution would be based on the suggestions presented by Yemen’s warring parties currently attending the peace talks.
In this regard, Cheikh Ahmed held Wednesday extensive meetings with the Yemeni delegations representing the Houthi group and the government of Saleh and with parties supervising the peace talks.
Sources close to the negotiations told Asharq Al-Awsat that Ould Cheikh’s meetings tackled a series of issues, mainly the “withdrawal and the surrender of arms.”
The sources added that the U.N. envoy was working on forming a joint government. However the delegation representing Saleh insists that no government would be formed before the Houthis surrender their weapons and withdraw from seized territory.
Separately, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) welcomed the handing over of 52 children by the Arab Coalition countries in Yemen after they were caught fighting with the Houthi militias along the border with Saudi Arabia.
UNICEF spokesperson in Yemen Mohammad al-Asadi told Asharq Al-Awsat that “UNICEF welcomes the release of children by the Arab Coalition, which coincided with the start of the Holy month of Ramadan. Those children, and all children under 18, should be with their families and at school, but not be forced to participate in conflicts.”
Asadi asserted that UNICEF will be in contact with the released children and will work on reintegrating them in the society. He added that UNICEF reiterates its calls for all warring parties in Yemen to immediately release recruited children and stop using them in wars, asserting that until now, it has been proven that at least 1,000 children were recruited by the warring parties since the start of the military operations in Yemen in March 2015.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has praised the U.N. decision to delete the name of the countries of the Coalition for Defense of Legitimacy in Yemen from the list in the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on children and military conflicts in light of the lack of accurate and reliable information about the coalition’s efforts on which the report was based.
The Saudi Press Agency reported early Wednesday that al-Jubeir expressed hope to verify in the future the accuracy of information before it is published, stressing at the same time the keenness of the Coalition for the Defense of legitimacy in Yemen on achieving security and stability in Yemen and fighting terrorist organizations including al-Qaeda.