After three weeks, the UN-sponsored Yemen peace talks in Kuwait are still ongoing without progress, as the warring parties cannot agree on simple things and deals proposed by the United Nations, according to a source attending the talks.

Days ago, UN envoy to Yemen Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the talks are facing big challenges as the rival parties, the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government and the alliance between the Houthis and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, continued to breach the fragile ceasefire.

"Real peace in Yemen requires two things, the first is that the international community should be more serious about ending the conflict," observers in Sanaa said.

"The international community must start taking effective actions against the factions that never work for peace," observers said, adding that the job of just being a broker of talks or bridging the gap between the warring parties proved to be not enough to build permanent peace.

The second thing is that local factions must commit themselves to the ceasefire.

Hassan Al-Warith, a political writer, said an essential thing for successful talks and ending the conflict is to admit that the crisis is now between Yemen and Saudi Arabia not among Yemenis.

"The international community needs to redefine the real situation in Yemen correctly as a crisis between the two countries.  If this does not happen, we will continue to waste time through holding unhelpful talks and, as a result, the war will continue," said Al-Warith.

Yasin Al-Tamimi, a political analyst and writer, said building peace must start with restoring the transition process in the country.

"Implementation of UN Security Council resolutions must not be on the agenda of the talks. The right thing is that these solutions are supposed to be implemented first in order to pave the way for successful talks," Al-Tamimi said.

Days ago, the U.S. ground troops started arriving in South Yemen to back the anti-Qaeda efforts.

Al-Qaeda and the IS have been taking advantage of the chaos and expanding in key eastern and southern regions.

Observers see the United States is not serious about the war on terror in Yemen.

The United States withdrew from fighting Al-Qaeda when the Saudi-led intervention began over a year ago leaving the door open for the terrorist group to expand in the country, a political analyst Mohammed Al-Kohali said.

"The arrival of the U.S. troops in the south aims to control waterways as part of the U.S. conflict with China and Russia," said Al-Kohali. "It is rethinking its strategy through Yemen as losing grip in the region, Syria in particular."

Nabil Albukiri, a researcher in Islamist groups, said the latest development in the south including withdrawal of Al-Qaeda militants from Mukalla city revealed weird tactics of terrorists.

"Nonetheless, what is happening in southern and eastern regions exposed links between the Houthi militants and Al-Qaeda," said Albukiri. "Yemen is seeing a very complicated structure of terrorist groups which may affect the peace process in the future. "  

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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