UAE welcomes UN peace plan to end crisis in Yemen

The United Arab Emirates, a key Saudi ally in its deadly aggression against Yemen, has welcomed a new United Nations peace proposal to end the Yemen conflict.

"The UAE supports the efforts of UN [Special] Envoy [for Yemen] Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed knowing that the mission of a mediator is always tough," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on his Twitter account on Thursday.

The remarks came two days after the UN envoy submitted the plan to Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and its allies.

According to informed sources, the roadmap urges agreement on naming a new vice president after the withdrawal of Houthis from the capital Sana’a and other cities and their handover of arms to a third party.

The initiative further calls on former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, to transfer power to the vice president who would appoint a new premier to form a government.

“The roadmap represents a political solution for the Yemeni crisis,” Gargash said, adding, “UN efforts represent a chance to bring Yemenis back to the political track. Other alternatives are gloomy.”

The Hadi administration, however, said that it had not received any roadmap for a political settlement.

Peace talks, which were held between Yemen’s opposing parties in Kuwait, ended in deadlock in August.

Earlier this week, Ahmed made a visit to Sana’a, where he held meetings with Yemen’s warring sides and called for a return to a cessation of hostilities to allow aid deliveries.

The Riyadh regime resumed its deadly airstrikes on Yemen on Sunday hours after a three-day truce in the conflict-ridden country expired.

Yemen has seen almost daily military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with the UN putting the toll from the aggression at more than 10,000.

The offensive was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and its allies and reinstate the former Yemeni government.

The Houthi Ansarullah fighters took state matters in their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.

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