Yemen govt agrees to talks with Houthis, Saleh

Yemen’s government will attend U.N.-sponsored talks with the Houthis and supporters of deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, a government spokesperson said on Sunday, in a fresh bid to end months of fighting that has killed more than 5,000 people.

“The decision has been taken to attend (the talks) and a letter will be sent to the U.N. secretary-general (about that),” Rajeh Badi, the government spokesman, told Reuters.

U.N. special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has been in Saudi Arabia for discussions with Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi and other senior Yemeni officials over the talks.

A previous round of U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in June failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military intervention since March to try to restore Hadi’s government, now based in Aden.