Alwaght-Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has described participation in the next round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden as “meaningless” amid an ongoing brutal Saudi-led aggression against the impoverished Arab country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Yemeni Arabic-language al-Thawra newspaper, published on Thursday, the spokesman and chief negotiator for the Yemeni Ansarullah movement Mohammed Abdul-Salam said United Nations Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths had not presented an innovative initiative and had failed to implement his confidence-building measures.
“There is no point in negotiations with a party that is looking to obtain through talks what it has failed to achieve by military aggression. The UN envoy has not offered anything new since taking office earlier this year. He has just held discussions, exchanged viewpoints and made promises,” Abdul-Salam said.
The next round of UN-sponsored peace talks between Yemen's warring sides are expected to start next week in Stockholm.
The Ansarullah official went on to say that Griffiths had not introduced “a comprehensive political framework for a solution to the Yemeni conflict, which takes into account the government transition phase with the inclusion of all Yemeni political parties and other issues that have already been pledged.”
Abdul-Salam noted that the UN envoy could not take measures “like the reopening of Sana’a airport to commercial access, the release of all prisoners and detainees, the removal of sanctions and other confidence-building moves," adding, “These and other stumbling blocks make us lose confidence again and think that the United Nations cannot do anything.”
The senior Yemeni negotiator pointed out that Griffiths “is focusing on issues that are trivial and not fundamental for peace talks. He is only looking at the possibility of bringing the warring parties together, without specifying the most important procedures for negotiations and a framework that needs to be agreed upon by all sides.”
“If he does not offer a clear and comprehensive political framework that would form the nucleus of the next round of peace negotiations, he will not be able to hold any further talks,” Abdul-Salam underlined.
