Lebanon offers to host dialogue among warring Yemeni parties
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says his country is prepared to host negotiations among representatives from all parties involved in the Yemeni crisis, describing dialogue as the only way to end the conflict.
"I suggested lately that the Sultanate of Oman takes the initiative to propose a solution to the Yemeni crisis, as the Sultanate is on good terms with the various Yemeni parties," Berri said in an exclusive interview with the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, published on Friday.
He added, "The crisis in Yemen would endanger the security of the (Persian) Gulf, and this is what we all want to avoid as any further escalation could lead to the unknown."
"In case Oman is refused by any of the parties as the venue for the talks, we welcome them in Lebanon. Let them engage in dialogue anywhere, in Riyadh, Muscat or Algiers, or even let them go to Geneva. The important thing is they engage in dialogue, save Yemen and preserve its unity,” the senior Lebanese official further noted.
The remarks come as Saudi Arabia goes ahead with its aerial attacks against members of the Houthi Ansarullah movement in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen started on March 26 in a bid to restore power to fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
On March 25, the embattled president fled Aden, where he had sought to set up a rival power base, to Riyadh after Ansarullah revolutionaries advanced on Aden.
The Ansarullah fighters took control of Sana’a in September 2014 and are currently moving southward. The revolutionaries said the Hadi government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror.
The United Nations says at least 519 people, including women and children, have so far lost their lives in two weeks of violence in Yemen.
UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in a statement on Thursday that 1,700 people have been also wounded during clashes between rival groups in Yemen and in the Saudi strikes against the country.
She further noted that 90 children were among the victims of the violence.
MP/SS
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