Yemen government delegation due in Kuwait for peace talks

KUWAIT CITY —Yemen's government delegation was due in Kuwait later Saturday for the resumption of UN-brokered peace talks after obtaining guarantees from the UN envoy, Foreign Minister Abdulmalek Al Mikhlafi said.

The talks were scheduled to resume after a 15-day suspension that coincided with the Muslim Eid Al Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan.

Mikhlafi said the government had obtained a "written response to our demands sufficient for the political leadership to decide [on] sending the delegation back to Kuwait".

"The deal stipulates that the Kuwait talks will not exceed two weeks, during which there will be a strict commitment to references," he wrote on Twitter.

A well-defined timetable has been agreed that is limited to "withdrawal, handover of arms, return of state institutions, release of prisoners and lifting siege on cities" by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and their allies, Mikhlafi said.

The deal was struck after two days of talks with UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in Riyadh, he said.

It was also agreed that the two-week duration will not be extended and no other issues will be debated, he added.

The rebel delegation of Houthis and representatives of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress Party arrived in Kuwait on Friday.

More than two months of negotiations between President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's Saudi-backed government and the rebels have failed to make any headway.

The government is calling for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 which requires the rebels and their allies to withdraw from areas they have occupied since 2014, including the capital Sanaa, and hand over heavy weapons.

Hadi on Sunday warned that his government would boycott the talks if the UN envoy insisted on a roadmap stipulating a unity government that included the insurgents.