Yemeni gov't to take part in planned UN talks in Sweden

By Mohamed al-Samei

SANAA, Yemen

The Yemeni government has agreed to take part in UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden, according to a UN official.

In a statement, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s envoy for Yemen, said that a Yemeni government delegation would be sent to the talks with a view to reaching a political solution to the country’s ongoing crisis.

The government, for its part, has stressed the importance of pressing Yemen’s Houthi rebel group to refrain from setting any preconditions and to distance itself from attempts to disrupt the talks.

Last Friday, Griffiths announced that Yemen’s warring parties had confirmed that they would take part in the peace talks in Sweden.

Griffiths’ announcement came after David Beasley, the head of the UN's World Food Program (WFP), briefed reporters on Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation.

“The country isn’t on the brink of catastrophe,” Beasley said at a news conference. “It is already facing a catastrophe.”

According to the WFP, some 18 million people in Yemen are “food insecure”, while another 12 to 14 million are “severely food insecure”.

"These people are literally marching toward the brink of starvation," Beasley said.