In a statement issued earlier today, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said that a proposal to form a new government in the capital, Sana’a, goes against the interests of Yemeni people, and contradicts the recent commitments provided by both sides to the UN and to the United States Secretary of State John Kerry in Muscat.

“Yemen is at a critical juncture. The actions recently taken by Ansar Allah and the General People's Congress will only complicate the search for a peaceful solution. The parties must hold Yemen’s national interests above narrow partisan ambitions and take immediate steps to end political divisions and address the country’s security, humanitarian and economic challenges,” he said in the statement.

New political arrangements should only be based on UN sponsored negotiations and not unilateral actions by any side,” said Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed, referring to the talks he had been facilitating between the sides.

Yemen has been engulfed in violence for more than 18 months – a confrontation between the country's Houthis (Ansar Allah) and the Government of Yemen in early 2014 led to a Houthi advance on the capital, and an ensuing conflict which has involved support from outside parties. The UN has been heavily involved in efforts to resolve the crisis.

In his statement today, Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed said: “There is still a chance to pull Yemen back from the brink. The roadmap I presented to the parties recently offers such an opportunity. I ask the representatives of Ansar Allah and the General People’s Congress to re-think their approach and demonstrate their commitment to the peace process with concrete actions.”

Moreover, it is crucial to engage constructively in the peace process in order to reach a negotiated settlement that brings about a permanent end to military hostilities and enables the resumption of a peaceful, inclusive, orderly and Yemeni-led political transition that meets the legitimate demands and aspirations of the Yemeni people.

“I urge all parties to recommit to and fully respect the terms and conditions of the Cessation of Hostilities, which will include a complete halt to ground and air military activities and allow the increased flow of humanitarian assistance, he said, calling on all sides to resume working through the De-Escalation and Coordination Committee to facilitate the strengthening of the pause in hostilities.

Finally, the envoy underscored that the conflict can only be brought to an end through civilized and negotiated political settlement. “The Yemeni people have suffered for far too long, and there is no reason to let this war continue.”</s>For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser</s>Yemen’s National Salvation Government was sworn in on Tuesday in Sanaa after the supreme political council had approved the formation of the 42-member cabinet headed by Abdol Aziz bin Habtur.

Habtur stated that the cabinet will exert all the possible efforts to meet the Yemenis’ aspirations as the political council had stressed that the main mission of the new government is to organize the domestic conditions and to confront the Saudi aggression militarily, politically and economically.

Yemen has been since March 26, 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.

Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.

Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive ex-president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.

Source: Al-Manar Website</s>SANAA, Nov. 30 (Saba) – Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtour convened the first meeting of the newly-formed national salvation government here in the capital Sanaa to assume responsibilities.

The meeting was held on Tuesday after the new cabinet was sworn in before president of the Supreme Political Council, Saleh al-Sammad.

The ministers discussed the priorities of their task and preparation to launch their comprehensive policy to be submitted to the parliament next week.

The ministers stressed that their policy will rise from the nature of the current exceptional challenges of military, security, economic, political situations that the Saudi aggression alliance try to impose on the Republic of Yemen since the beginning of their pointless aggression in March 2015, as well as their systematic and comprehensive target against the capabilities and resources of the country, and forcing air, land and sea blockade.

ZaK</s>The minority Shia group has been in control of Sanaa over the past two years, after driving out the internationally-recognized government and forcing its president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to flee to neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The so-called National Salvation Government, formed on Monday, will be headed by Abdul Aziz Habtoor, a politician who had defected from Hadi's government and joined the Houthi coalition last year, according to the movement's news agency Saba.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed al Bukhaiti said that the new government, formed with a number of allied groups, "was meant to strengthen the partnership in the country."

"It includes parties from all the political spectrum," he told CNN over the phone from Sanaa, while adding that it excluded politicians supportive of Hadi's exiled government.

The move comes at a time when the United Nations is scrambling to negotiate a peace deal between the waring parties and set the groundwork for an inclusive unity government. Yemen: The 'forgotten war' cloaked in the shadow of Syria Al Bukhaiti told CNN the newly-declared government was "not an alternative to a future unity government that would include members of those who are pro-aggression". His reference was a swipe at the Saudi-led military coalition that has been backing Hadi and bombarding Houthi positions in Yemen since March 2015. Following the declaration of the government, Rajeh Badi, a spokesman for the Hadi government, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the move showed "a disregard not just for the Yemeni people but also for the international community." The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has yet to comment on the development. He met with a number of officials in Yemen's neighboring countries over the weekend to "prepare for a new round" of talks, he said in a statement on Sunday. The conflict in Yemen has killed an estimated 10,000 people and left millions in need of aid, according to the UN. The World Food Programme warned last month of the devastating toll that hunger could have on the war-torn country, adding that "an entire generation could be crippled by hunger". Since peace talks in Kuwait failed in August, the coalition has intensified air raids, despite vocal criticism from rights groups that the bombardments have been indiscriminate and could constitute war crimes. The attacks have often hit civilian targets with devastating results. In October, the Saudi-led coalition admitted that it was responsible for an airstrike that killed at least 155 people at a wake in Yemen that month. The US has come under increasing pressure to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia . The US Senate last month rejected a bipartisan proposal to block a pending $1.15 billion arms sale to Riyadh.</s>More than 7,000 people have been killed and nearly 37,000 wounded since Yemen's conflict escalated since a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened militarily in March last year (AFP Photo/Ahmad Al-Basha)

Aden (AFP) - The UN envoy to Yemen and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi met Thursday in the southern city of Aden to discuss a new bid to end the country's conflict, a government official said.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who flew in from Riyadh, held several hours of talks with Hadi at the hilltop Al-Maashiq palace, where members of his government are also staying, before leaving Aden, the official said.

The UN envoy, after meeting Hadi in Aden for the first time, said the visit was a "message of respect" for the president, in videotaped comments sent to reporters.

The aim of his mission was to "return to dialogue and a peaceful solution", Ould Cheikh Ahmed said, reporting "much positivity" from Hadi.

Aden has been serving as Yemen's temporary capital since pro-Hadi forces with support from a Saudi-led Arab coalition recaptured it from Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels last year.

Hadi, who has been based mostly in Riyadh since Yemen's conflict broke out, flew to Aden last Saturday.

The government-run sabanew.net website said Hadi handed the envoy a letter reiterating the government’s rejection of a roadmap presented by Ould Cheikh Ahmed in October, which would see the president eased out of power.

The contents of the peace roadmap have not been made public.

But informed sources say it calls for agreement on naming a new vice president after the rebels withdraw from the capital Sanaa and other cities and hand over heavy weapons to a third party.

Hadi would then transfer power to the vice president who would appoint a new prime minister to form a government in which the north and south of Yemen would have equal representation.

Late last month, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he has been preparing "for a new round" of peace talks, after a previous round held in Kuwait collapsed in August.

More than 7,000 people have been killed and nearly 37,000 wounded since Yemen's conflict escalated after the Saudi-led military coalition intervened in March 2015 to support Hadi.

On a separate front, Aden has been the target of frequent jihadist attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group which have expanded in Yemen's south and east.

On Thursday, three Al-Qaeda suspects, including a local leader named Abu Jeni al-Suairi, were killed in an apparent US drone strike on their vehicle in the eastern province of Hadramawt, security officials said.

In Shabwa province, further south, suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen shot dead a retired intelligence officer, Colonel Salem Yusr, as he was left a local market, they said.

Washington regards Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch as its most dangerous, and it has kept up a long-running drone war targeting its commanders.</s>Diplomats had hoped the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa, would hold off on putting together a cabinet of their loyalists and instead form a unity government with their Yemeni foes, whom they pushed into Saudi exile.

The Houthis, who control territory with more than half of Yemen's population, previously said forming a government with their allies did not mean abandoning the U.N.-sponsored peace process.

The flight of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the internationally recognized president, triggered military intervention by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia that has carried out thousands of air strikes on the Houthis but failed to dislodge them from Sanaa.

In a statement late on Friday, China's Foreign Ministry said it supported Yemen's legal government.

"We do not approve of any side in Yemen taking any unilateral actions that complicate the situation, and believe this is not beneficial to a political resolution of the Yemen issue," the ministry said in a short statement.

China hopes relevant parties in Yemen continue dialogue to resolve the differences and reach an equitable settlement all sides can accept on the basis of United Nations resolutions and Gulf Cooperation Council initiatives, it added.

China relies on the Middle East for oil but has tended to leave Middle Eastern diplomacy to the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France and Russia.

However, China has been trying to get more involved, especially in Syria and has taken tentative steps over the Yemen crisis too.

In January, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Saudi Arabia, both countries affirmed their support for the unity, independence and sovereignty of Yemen and support for its internationally recognized government.

Riyadh sees the Houthis as a proxy for bitter regional rival Iran to expand its influence in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation. The Houthis deny this and say they are waging a revolution against a corrupt government and Gulf Arab powers beholden to the West.

China also has close ties with Iran.
Despite criticism by UN Special Envoy for Yemen, 42 cabinet members of the National Salvation Government in Yemen have taken oath and convened its first meeting. The new government, led by the former governor of Aden Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, vowed to help UN efforts for peace and stability in the country.