Aden // Yemen peace talks will take place on December 15 and president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi is expected to call a ceasefire before the meeting gets underway.
"The ceasefire will be a first step to open the door for the peace talks and stop the war in Yemen, and it will be under the observation of the UN," a presidential source told The National on Monday.
The ceasefire could take effect before the end of the week, the source said, adding that Mr Hadi was willing to implement the truce as an act of trust before the peace talks start in Switzerland.
UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said a swift halt to the fighting was imperative for those caught up in the conflict and a deteriorating humanitarian crisis.
Mr Ahmed said three delegations, including the internationally recognised government of Mr Hadi, would take part in the talks, which have no definitive timeline and will last “as long as it takes.”
The other two delegations will come from the Houthi rebels, who control large parts of northern Yemen after overrunning the capital Sanaa in September 2014, and officials from the General People’s Congress (GPC), the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced from power during the Arab Spring only to remain in Yemen and side with the Houthis against Mr Hadi.
The UN envoy said he was “almost certain” a temporary ceasefire would be in force by December 15 “to create an environment conducive to peace talks.”
“Everyone seems to be welcoming this idea that we will have a ceasefire,” Mr Ahmed said, noting that a permanent ceasefire remained a more distant prospect.
According to the UN envoy, Riyadh, which has been leading a coalition to defeat the Iran-backed Houthis and return Mr Hadi to full control of the country, said it would observe a ceasefire if it was backed by the president.
The source said the Houthis had agreed to the agenda of the peace talks and that once the ceasefire was in place, prisoners would be freed and the rebels would end their siege of key cities.
He added that Mr Hadi had already put together his negotiating team.
Each delegation will be made up of 12 members, including eight official negotiators and four advisers.
The delegations have not yet been finalised, in part because the UN has insisted that more women be included, according to Mr Ahmed.
Talks will focus on four main areas, including the terms for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of armed groups from the areas under their control.
Another area of dialogue was described as “confidence-building measures” which includes broadening humanitarian access in the country where aid workers have been killed and kidnapped.
Finally, delegates will try to hammer out a political future for Yemen, which had been progressing along a GCC-backed transition process put in place after massive protests in 2011 forced Mr Saleh from power.
The conflict has allowed extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and militants pledging allegiance to ISIL to increase their activity.
The governor of Yemen’s second city Aden, Gaafar Saad, was killed in a suicide car bombing claimed by ISIL on Sunday, a day after the UN envoy visited the city.
Mr Ahmed said he was “extremely concerned by the ever-growing suffering of the Yemeni people” and called on the rival camps to show “courage, personal sacrifice and tenacity” in the bid for peace.
Mr Hadi on Monday appointed the leader of the Southern Resistance, brigadier Aidarous Al Naqeeb as the new governor of Aden and Brigadier General Shalal Ali Shaei as director of Aden’s security office.
Mr Hadi also announced a new Yemeni ambassador to the UAE, replacing Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the son of the former president, with Fahd Saeed Al Minhali.
Mohammed Al Hassani, a Yemeni political analyst, said the Aden appointments would “encourage the Southern Resistance to fight the alleged Islamic State members in Aden as the governor is one of them and also the director of Aden’s security is a supporter of the Southern Resistance.”
The United Nations says more than 5,700 people have been killed in Yemen since March, almost half of them civilians.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse