Qatar FM: Decisive Storm prevented Iran-backed Houthi takeover in Yemen

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ran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels and Yemen’s government agreed Friday to attend UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending a more than two-month war.

The Geneva meeting, provisionally set for June 14, would be the first significant effort to stop the fighting which has led to what the United Nations has called a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.

Ezzedine Al-Isbahi, information minister of the Yemeni government based in Riyadh, said they would send a delegation to Switzerland.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the Security Council on Wednesday that the government would attend but that he was still in consultation with the rebels.

“The government agreed to participate in the Geneva talks,” Isbahi said. He added that the meeting would involve “consultations on implementing Resolution 2216” which the Security Council passed in April.

Meanwhile, Qatari foreign minister said in Paris that the armed intervention had prevented a Houthi takeover.

“If there had not been (Operation) Decisive Storm, we would have seen the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh’s people all over Yemen,” Khaled Al-Attiyah said. “I think Decisive Storm … has restored legitimacy in Yemen.

“Is it enough or not? I think it will be enough when the Houthis and Saleh’s followers fulfil the elements of 2216.”

Arab News