UN resolution to push all parties in Yemen to resume peace negotiations

A proposed UN resolution would demand all parties in Yemen to immediately honor April cease-fire and resume peace negotiations.

The draft Security Council resolution also calls for transparent and timely investigations of alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and accountability for those responsible for violations and abuses.

Britain's UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft has recently said he expects to circulate the draft to the council "in the coming days." It was first published by Inner City Press. The UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has drafted a roadmap covering political and security issues.

It was immediately rejected by President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen's internationally recognized government who would lose power under its provisions. "We hope he will now receive it, and engage on it in good faith," Rycroft told the council during a meeting on Yemen on Monday, adding that all parties should "return to negotiations on the basis of the roadmap and in a spirit of compromise."

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has been in the midst of a civil war since September 2014 when Shiite Houthi rebels swept into the capital of Sanaa and overthrew Hadi's government. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab countries began a military campaign against Houthi forces, saying its mission served in part as a counterbalance to Iran's influence with the Houthis following its nuclear deal with world powers.