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Turkish, Qatari foreign ministers back truce in Yemen

Türkiye Materials 10 May 2015 02:55 (UTC +04:00)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Qatari counterpart Khalid bin Muhammad al-Attiyah have both called for a political solution to end the crisis in Yemen.
Turkish, Qatari foreign ministers back truce in Yemen

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

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 Saturday, Cavusoglu said: "Everybody needs to respect the UN resolution on Yemen, however, we see that the Houthis are behaving timidly to implement such decisions.

"We harshly condemn their latest attack on southern Najran and Jizan, a region near the border with Yemen," he said.

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 that also included 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 Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled a proposed five-day humanitarian truce in Yemen, saying that if agreed the truce could start as early as Tuesday.

The truce makes it, however, necessary for the Houthis to abide by a cease-fire in all Yemeni provinces.

The United Nation too has been calling a truce in Yemen since April.

Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthis overran 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 comes in response to appeals by Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi for military intervention against the Houthis.

Hadi, who is 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.

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