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Houthis study US truce proposal for Yemen

September 17, 2016 at 2:12 am

A senior US diplomat has presented a proposal for a comprehensive ceasefire in Yemen to the country’s dominant Houthis at a meeting in Oman, a source close to the Houthi negotiating team said on Thursday.

Negotiators returned to Houthi-controlled Sanaa yesterday carrying the plan offered by US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon in talks in Muscat, the source said.

Shannon met the Houthi team, officials of the allied General People’s Congress (GPC) party and an Omani mediator in Muscat on 8 and 9 September to discuss how to end a war that has killed over 10,000 people and displaced more than three million.

In Washington, US officials said the plan was an “extension of the efforts Secretary [of State John] Kerry initiated in Jeddah.”

The source did not disclose details of the proposal. Kerry said in Saudi Arabia on 25 August he had agreed in talks with Gulf Arab states and the United Nations on a plan to restart peace talks on Yemen with a goal of forming a unity government.