Turkish, Qatari foreign ministers back truce in Yemen

ANTALYA - Anadolu Agency

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Qatari counterpart, Khalid bin Muhammad al-Attiyah. DHA photo

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Qatari counterpart, Khalid bin Muhammad al-Attiyah, have both called for a political solution to end the crisis in Yemen.

“Everybody needs to respect the U.N. resolution on Yemen, however, we see that the Houthis are behaving timidly to implement such decisions,” Çavuşoğlu said, addressing a joint press conference in Turkey’s Antalya province on the sidelines of the preparatory meeting of the High-Level Strategic Committee of Turkish-Qatari Foreign Ministers on May 9. 

“We harshly condemn their latest attack in southern Najran and Jizan, a region near the border with Yemen,” he added.

The Turkish minister also said that for a permanent solution to work in Yemen, “all parties must respect the decisions made.”

Qatari Foreign Minister al-Attiyah said an agreement including Houthis should be reached in Yemen.

“A truce has been called on Friday, beginning on Tuesday. This decision should definitely be implemented. This is a humanitarian attempt,” said al-Attiyah.

On May 9, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled a proposed five-day humanitarian truce in Yemen, saying the truce could start as early as May 12 if the parties agree to it.

However, the truce would make it necessary for the Houthis to abide by a cease-fire in all Yemeni provinces.
The United Nation has been calling for a truce in Yemen since April.

Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthis overran the capital Sanaa, from which they sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country.

On March 25, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began an extensive military campaign targeting Houthi positions across Yemen.

Riyadh says its air campaign came in response to appeals by Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi for military intervention against the Houthis.

Hadi, who has been backed by the Sunni-majority Gulf States, fled to Riyadh in March after Houthi forces attacked his residence in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden.