schema:articleBody
| - The UN special envoy to Yemen urged its warring parties Thursday to accept a proposed peace plan, telling the Security Council that the blueprint has international backing. "All we need now is for the parties to agree to this deal. That's all," Martin Griffiths said. The envoy said the council was agreed that only a "negotiated political solution" would provide a way out of the conflict. "Generally, it is also true that there is a convergence of diplomatic voices in favor of an end to the war and its successful political resolution," he added. Yemen's civil war, which started in 2014, pits Iran-backed Huthi rebels against an internationally recognized government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, according to international organizations, sparking what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, said most of the blame for the fighting in Yemen lay with the Huthi rebels. "We now urge the Huthis to respond and engage productively. Huthi actions to date do not lead us to believe they are committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict," she said. "The Huthi offensive in Marib continues to take Yemeni lives -- including those of internally displaced persons," she added, referring to the capital of an oil-rich region and the government's last significant pocket of territory in the north. Since February the UN has been pushing a plan to end the conflict that features a nationwide ceasefire, the opening of north-south roads to guarantee movement of people, humanitarian and other aid, and the launch of a political process to end the fighting. prh/dw/ft
|