Aden – Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi implicitly warned that he would boycott the ongoing peace negotiations on the future of the country if the United Nations keeps insisting on a roadmap for the formation of a unity government.
“We will not return to talks in Kuwait if the United Nations tries to impose the latest proposal by mediator, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed,” Hadi said, adding that Houthis were attempting to “legalize” their coup d’état through Kuwait talks.
“The UN has tried to convince us to form a coalition government. We said we would issue a statement declaring our boycott of the Kuwait consultations,” Hadi said Sunday while visiting a group of soldiers in the city of Maarib, east of the capital Sanaa.
He added that his forces would liberate the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, from Houthis “soon.”
Hadi also said he would not accept the roadmap proposed by U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Talks between Hadi’s representatives and delegates representing Houthis and allies began in the Kuwait City on April 21.
In earlier remarks, Hadi said that he would not tolerate Houthis as part of any future government, reiterating that fighters must withdraw from cities they control and surrender their arms.
More than 14 months of conflict in Yemen have killed over 6,000 people while many more remain displaced across the country.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed has put forward a peace roadmap that would see the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal and disarmament of the rebels.
He said negotiators had welcomed his proposal but had not agreed a timetable or the steps needed to implement it.
The government had already expressed doubts this month about the U.N.-backed efforts.
“The Yemenis will not allow Yemen to be turned into a Persian state” in Iran’s orbit, Hadi said, vowing to recapture Sanaa.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher said that his country would not allow any compromise that would stretch the ongoing war and create environments of divisions and partitioning.
In recent remarks, Dagher said that there was only one road to peace, which is the true and honest commitment to the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216 and the Gulf initiative for Yemen.
Dagher made his remarks during a security meeting held in Aden on Sunday.
Dagher hailed security and military measures to re-instate peace in Yemen, adding that the government was deploying all possible efforts to restore stability and rehabilitate the country’s main infrastructure.
In the same context, sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that Hadi’s visit to the city of Maarib coincided with the arrival of military reinforcements to the Yemeni province, in a clear reference to the ongoing preparations to liberate Sanaa.
The sources added that there were feelings of optimism among the residents, who were hopeful that Hadi’s visit to Maarib was a first step towards the liberation of the Yemeni capital from Houthis’ domination.
