(MENAFN- The Peninsula) UN-sponsored talks in Geneva on a ceasefire between Yemen's civil war parties ended yesterday without a deal as Saudi-led warplanes staged further strikes on the dominant Houthi armed faction and allies, including Republican Guards.
More than 2,800 people have been killed since an Arab alliance launched air raids on March 26 to try to roll back the Iranian-backed Houthis' advances across much of Yemen and reinstate exiled president Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in five days of "proximity talks" - in which he shuttled between factions who refused to sit at the same table - the two sides agreed in principle on the need for a ceasefire and withdrawal of forces in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 2216.
"There is a certain willingness from all parties to discuss issues around a ceasefire accompanied by withdrawal... I come out from these few days with a certain degree of optimism that we can achieve this (in further consultations) in the coming days," he told a press conference in Geneva.
"The (opposing) positions that as you know have been so strong in view of so many lives having been lost and where a government that is internationally recognised is outside the country. A lot of things didn't make it easy for us."
He said he would fly to New York on Sunday to brief the UN Security Council, where major powers also needed to sign off on his proposal for a force of civilian observers to monitor any truce and withdrawals on the ground.
Hadi's foreign minister, Reyad Yassin Abdullah, said talks made no significant headway but there was room for more discussions, although no date had been scheduled for any. "The Houthi delegation did not allow us to reach all progress as we expected ... But it doesn't mean that we have failed," he told reporters.
Hadi's government has demanded that the Houthis, allied with Yemeni military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, pull out of cities captured since last September as a precondition for a ceasefire.
Yahya Duwaid of Saleh's General People's Congress said: "We had reason to be hopeful and optimistic... and we listened to the UN proposals today, but what they were proposing was not of the standard we were looking for."
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