Ahmad al-Basha, AFP | A fighter loyal to Yemen's exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi walks past a tank during clashes with Shiite Huthi rebels near the country's third-largest city of Taez on September 9, 2015.

Yemen's exiled government backed out of UN-brokered peace talks as loyalist forces supported by a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive Sunday against Shiite Houthi rebels.

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President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government, which has fled to Saudi Arabia, had said on Friday it would join UN-mediated talks this week in Oman.

But in a short statement issued overnight, Hadi's office said the government would not attend the talks unless the rebels first accept a UN resolution demanding their withdrawal from territory they have captured.

The government decided "not to take part in any meeting until the militia recognises Resolution 2216 and agrees to implement it without conditions," the statement said.

Houthi rebels seized control of the capital, Sanaa, last year to press their demands for a greater share of power in the Sunni-majority country.

Their southward expansion triggered a military intervention by a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf states, who accuse Shiite regional rival Iran of backing the rebels.

The exiled government's decision to back out of peace talks is a setback for the UN's special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who had brokered the talks.

The UN has called repeatedly for a ceasefire in Yemen, which has been wracked by conflict since March when the coalition launched air strikes on the rebels as they advanced on the southern city of Aden.

Previous attempts at talks to end the conflict -- which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 4,500 people -- have repeatedly collapsed.

12,000 troops readied

Pro-government forces have made significant gains in recent months as the coalition intensified air strikes and sent modern equipment and reportedly thousands of troops to Yemen.

Analysts have said the war is entering a new and potentially decisive phase as Gulf nations build up ground forces to battle the rebels in the capital and their northern strongholds.

In July, loyalist troops freshly trained and equipped by the coalition pushed the rebels out of Aden and four other southern provinces.

On Sunday, Hadi loyalists launched the "largest and fiercest offensive since operations began in Marib province," a military official said, adding that the offensive aimed to push the rebels out of the oil-rich province east of Sanaa and eventually move on the capital.

Most of Marib is controlled by fighters and armed tribes allied with Hadi, but the rebels and renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh hold parts of the province.

Saleh, who ruled for 33 years before being forced from power in 2012 after a bloody year-long uprising, has thrown the support of his loyalists in the army behind the Houthis.

Forces loyal to Hadi say they have assembled about 12,000 soldiers for the offensive.

The Saudi-led coalition has also intensified its air raids against the rebels since a missile attack earlier this month killed 60 Gulf troops, most of them Emiratis, at the Safer base in Marib.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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