SANAA: Air strikes by Saudi-led forces hit military bases across Yemen on Friday, and the country’s foreign minister was quoted as saying there was no need to convene another peace summit after the first round of talks failed.

Talks in Geneva last week ended without a resolution to the conflict, which has claimed more than 2,800 lives, as the Iran-allied Houthi movement and Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi refused to back down.

Ten people were killed in air raids in Jawf, a northern province bordering Saudi Arabia, residents said. Fighter jets also struck the capital Sanaa, the Houthis’ northern stronghold in Saada, as well as the provinces of Marib, Shabwa, Bayda and Aden in the centre and south of the country.

Mr Hadi’s Foreign Minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla said his government had no interest in organising a new meeting in Geneva, Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Friday, and would instead work with all parties to implement United Nations Security Council resolution 2216.

The Houthis reject that resolution, which calls for them to withdraw from cities under their control, return seized arms and allow Mr Hadi to return from his Riyadh exile.

Three months after an Arab coalition began air raids in support of Mr Hadi on March 26, the Houthis and allied military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh remain the dominant force on the ground, and have stepped up attacks on Saudi border posts in recent weeks.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will hold talks in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the coming days on a draft peace proposal with the aim of reaching a preliminary agreement with Houthi fighters, a UN spokesman said on Friday.

In a possible blow for peace hopes, Yemen’s Houthi-run state news agency Saba reported that Saudi-led forces had prevented an Omani aircraft with Yemeni delegates returning home from the Geneva peace talks from landing on Friday in Sanaa.

The plane, which was also carrying people who had been wounded in recent bomb blasts by militants, had to turn back to Muscat, Saba said. The Saudi-led coalition is in control of Yemen’s airspace and coastline.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2015

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