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Yemen government raises prospect of truce, air strikes kill over 40

06 July 2015 19:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Yemen's exiled government said on Monday it expects a deal shortly on a humanitarian ceasefire that would run through the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday later this month, as air strikes by Saudi-led warplanes killed more than 40 people, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The United Nations has been pushing for a halt to fighting and air raids that have killed nearly 3,000 people in Yemen since March when a Saudi-led coalition intervened against Houthi forces in a bid to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The government, exiled in Riyadh, said talks were focused on implementing an April U.N. resolution calling for the Iranian-allied Houthis to quit cities seized since September and for aid supplies to be sent to stricken Yemeni civilians.

"We are now in consultations for guarantees to ensure the success of the truce," Hadi spokesman Rajeh Badi told Reuters.

"The mechanism we presented to implement (the U.N. resolution) demanded real guarantees to ensure aid is delivered to those who need it," he said, noting that talks were underway to "lift the deliberate siege on Aden, Taiz, Lahj and Dhalea".

Major cities in central and southern Yemen have been racked by heavy fighting between the Houthis and a patchwork of military, regional and tribal forces allied with Hadi.

Badi said a sought-after "humanitarian pause" would last through the end of the three-day Eid, due to start on July 17.

The Houthis have also signalled readiness to honour a truce.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said last week in a Facebook post he had discussed the matter with U.N. Yemen envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed in Muscat, Oman. Cheikh Ahmed flew to Sanaa on Sunday for talks with the Houthis.