United Nations-mediated talks to end more than a year of war in Yemen have adjourned and will reconvene in Kuwait on July 15 after the Muslim Eid holiday, the U.N. envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said on Wednesday.
A shaky ceasefire coinciding with negotiations has paused fighting which raged across the country, though Saudi-led air strikes have increased as Iran-allied Houthis have made ground advances while Islamic State (ISIS) has taken advantage of a security vacuum to launch a string of bombings.
The talks bring together the Houthi movement and Yemen’s internationally-recognised government, but have achieved little concrete progress in over two months.
“The two delegations will use the coming two weeks to meet their respective leaderships,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.
“(They) will then return to Kuwait on 15 July with practical recommendations on how to implement the necessary mechanisms that will enable them to sign a peace accord and thus end the conflict in Yemen,” he said.
Saudi Arabia and its mostly Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March of 2015 to confront what they fear is Islamic influence on the Arabian Peninsula.
The Houthis have denied Iranian backing and accuse the government of corruption and dependence of foreign powers.
