Saudi Gazette report



GENEVA — Yemen peace talks collapsed on Saturday after three days of waiting for the Houthi militias who refused to travel to Geneva.



The Houthi’s failure to come to Geneva for the first talks in three years was “the elephant in the room”, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said.



Griffiths, who held three days of talks with a Yemeni government delegation, said he would meet in coming days with the Houthi leadership in Sanaa.



Yemeni Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Yamani affirmed that the Houthis have been sabotaging negotiations since 2015 because of their irresponsibility, ignorance and intransigence which undermine the efforts of the United Nations, legitimate government and the sponsoring countries.



“If they were sincere in reaching peace, they should have come, even if we were meeting in separate rooms,” he said.



In a press conference in Geneva at the end of the peace negotiations round, Al-Yamani pointed out that the attendance of the legitimacy delegation reflected the seriousness and commitment to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people.



He called on the Security Council and the international community to carry out their responsibilities.



“We want the UN to be firmer in bringing the other party to the negotiations,” he said.



Al-Yamani expressed his regret over the statements of the UN envoy Griffith in which he tried to justify the Houthi absence in Geneva.



Earlier, Griffiths told a news conference, “They (the Houthis) would have like to get here, we didn’t make conditions sufficiently correct to get them here



“We just didn’t make it,” he said, insisting though that efforts would continue to bring the parties together. The talks had been scheduled to formally open Thursday, but the absence of the militias left Griffiths scrambling to try to save them.



Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, tweeted: “Despite the serious setback in Geneva the way forward is still a political solution. What is perhaps clearer now to the international community is the unwillingness of the Houthis to engage in good faith with such a process.”