Government, rebels kick off new peace talks in northern Yemen

May 5, 2008, 13:12 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - A new round of talks between representatives of Yemeni authorities and Shiite rebels began in the north-western Yemeni province of Saada on Monday to revive a fragile ceasefire, a senior negotiator said.

Ali Abu-Hulaiqa, who heads a Yemeni-Qatari committee entrusted with enforcing a Qatari-sponsored ceasefire deal, said the committee met with rebel negotiators to set a new timetable for implementing the agreement.

'We met their (the rebels) representatives and discussed a weekly procedural agenda,' Abu-Hulaiqa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone from Saada, some 230 kilometres north of Sana'a.

'Our mission is in line with the state's general policy to resolve the crisis peacefully and preserve Yemeni blood from being spilled,' he said.

'Yemeni blood is precious, regardless whose it is,' he added.

Negotiations focus on the ceasefire deal that was inked in Doha last June and put an end to the deadly fighting that lasted for more than three years between the Yemeni army and members of the outlawed Shiite Believing Youth rebel movement in Saada, known as Houthis.

The renewed talks follows days of skirmishes between government forces and rebels in Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia.

Resuming the talks would help ease tension after the April 2 mosque bombing that left 16 people dead and around 50 injured, and the clashes that followed on Saturday and Sunday, leaving a further 15 people dead.

Authorities accuse the rebels of trying to reinstall the imamate rule that was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

The rebels say they were only defending their areas from army offensives.

Houthis belong mostly to the Zaidi sect of Islam, which is regarded as a moderate sect.

The conflict began in mid-2004 after Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi, established the Believing Youth movement and organized a series of protests in Sana'a and other major cities to voice out their trademark slogan 'Death to America ... Death to Israel.'

Hussein was killed by the army in September the same year after months of bloody fighting with government forces.

Waves of violent clashes have since left hundreds of government troops and rebels dead, and displaced thousands of civilians from Saada.

A team of Qatari mediators headed by Qatari Assistant Foreign Minister Saif Abu al-Eineen is attending the talks in Saada.

The Qatari team had left Saada in mid-April after talks reached a deadlock.

Officials say the Houthis insist on their refusal to vacate all the positions they hold.

Under the deal, rebels should leave their locations in the mountains of Saada, while the government in turn would gradually release detained rebels. Some 347 rebel supporters were released last February.

The rebels' refusal to hand over their strategic mountainous positions led to reluctance by authorities to release more detainees.

The agreement also provides that the current rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and his two brothers, Yahay and Abdul-Kareem, would be allowed to live in exile in Qatar.