US, Britain call for Yemen cease-fire

The US, Britain and the UN peace envoy to Yemen have urged the warring parties in the country’s civil war to declare a cease-fire they said could start within days.
The UN envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said: “We are here to call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, which will be declared in the next few hours.”
Cheikh Ahmed said he had been in contact with the rebel Houthi militia’s lead negotiator and with Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government.
But he also warned that he hoped for “clearer plans” for a cease-fire in coming days.
US Secretary of State John Kerry would not predict whether Yemen’s government or Houthi militias had accepted the demand, but said the diplomats were not operating “in a vacuum.” “This is the time to implement a cease-fire unconditionally and then move to the negotiating table,” Kerry told reporters.
Kerry was speaking after meeting Cheikh Ahmed and his counterparts from Britain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE at talks hosted by Britain in London.
Washington’s top diplomat said he, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Cheikh Ahmed are calling for the cease-fire to begin “as rapidly as possible, meaning Monday, Tuesday.”
The senior envoys, he said, had been in touch with Hadi’s government and with the Iranian-sponsored Houthi militias to push for peace.
“We cannot emphasize enough today the urgency of ending the violence in Yemen,” Kerry said.

Source: Arab News