We’re ready for ceasefire, Yemen tells UN

Yemen’s exiled government has told the UN that it is ready for a temporary ceasefire to end nearly three months of fighting provided key “guarantees” are met, a spokesman has said.

“The Yemeni authorities have informed the secretary general of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon of its agreement to implement a truce in the coming days,” spokesman Rajeh Badi told Reuters by phone from the government’s seat of exile in Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the spokesman said, had “set guarantees for the success of the truce”.

These included the release of prisoners by Yemen’s dominant Houthi group, including the loyalist defence minister, as well as the Houthis’ withdrawal from four southern and eastern provinces where they are fighting local militias.

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But Houthi leader Zeifullah al-Shami told the Associated Press late on Wednesday that those conditions are “unacceptable” because they do not address the country’s humanitarian crisis.