Top Yemeni official blames US for failed truce talks
President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi Al-Mashat on Monday blamed the US for the recent failure in efforts to extend a ceasefire in his country ravaged by the Saudi-led war.
Al-Mashat said that the ceasefire talks had reached a good level of understanding, but the efforts failed as soon as US envoy Tim Lenderking arrived in the region, Al Mayadeen reported.
He was referring to Lenderking’s trip to the region that began on October 11 for UN-led negotiations with Yemeni parties to reach an agreement on a truce expansion.
The Yemeni official said that the US envoy is trying to show that he’s working on peace, but his actions actually send the message of war and bloodshed.
The role the United States plays in the ceasefire process is dangerous and destructive, and Washington does not want Yemen’s truce to be extended, Al-Mashat stressed.
He spoke of a no-peace, no-war state, saying that the situation is partly the result of the fact that some of the parties to the Saudi-led coalition are convinced that they are defeated.
The coalition waged the ongoing war on Yemen in March 2015, leaving a trail of deaths and destruction in that country already branded as the poorest Arab state prior to the war.
So far, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have been killed either directly or through indirect causes such as hunger, according to the UN.
The world body helped brokered a ceasefire in April 2022 that was in place for six months.
The truce was aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in Yemen where the majority of the population is facing lack of food and basic supplies.