'Flickering signal of hope' for Yemen despite talks delay

Planned talks in Geneva this week between Yemen's warring parties offer a "flickering signal of hope" after years of conflict, the UN mediator said Wednesday, despite signs of delay and low expectations. The talks will be the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Huthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.
"The people of Yemen... are desperately in need of a signal of hope," UN envoy Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva.
"We would like to think that the work we will do together in these next days will begin to send a flickering signal of hope to them." But both the government and the rebels have said they expect no breakthrough at the "consultations", which had been scheduled to open Thursday but appear likely to be delayed.
While representatives of the Yemeni government arrived in Geneva Wednesday, the rebels remained stranded in Sanaa, amid claims the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi was preventing them from leaving for the talks.
The Huthis said the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from a Saudi-led coalition backing the government for a plane to transport the rebel delegation, along with wounded insurgents, out of the country, according to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV. While the Huthis control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the coalition controls the country's airspace.
When asked about the Huthi charges, Griffiths said: "We are working on that."
The UN meanwhile announced that there would be no meetings at its European headquarters in Geneva on Thursday as previously planned.
But Griffiths said his "informal consultations" with the government side would begin immediately.
"I am looking forward to meeting their leader right after this, Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani," he said at a press conference.
That meeting is expected to take place in a Geneva hotel, as are any other meetings that might happen on Thursday, while more formal consultations could kick off at the UN on Friday.
"We are not going to waste time," Griffiths said.
He emphasised that the Geneva talks were "not formal negotiations," but said they aimed to pave the way towards bringing the parties back to the negotiating table.
The talks also seek to put in place a range of so-called confidence-building measures, which could include prisoner swaps and the vaccination of children, he said.