UN says Yemen talks still on despite boycott threat

The United Nations said Yemen's peace talks were expected to resume later today or the next day despite a threat by the government to boycott the negotiations.
The rebel delegation of Shiite Huthis and representatives of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress party was on its way to Kuwait City for the talks, a rebel spokesman said.
UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived in Riyadh for talks with Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in an apparent last-ditch effort to convince the government to attend the talks.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed "will leave to Kuwait along with the government delegation", a spokesman for the UN envoy told AFP, adding that the talks were scheduled to resume later in the day "or tomorrow".

The rebel delegation left for Kuwait after a day-long stop in Oman during which they said they met Foreign Minister Yussef bin Alawi.
Unlike its Gulf neighbours, Oman maintains good ties with Shiite Iran, a key backer of the Huthi rebels in Yemen.

"We are committed to the time" for the resumption of talks and "to everything we had (previously) agreed on", media adviser to the rebel delegation Ahmad Ghilan told AFP in a text message.
Sources close to the Yemen government told AFP Ould Cheikh Ahmed was to brief Hadi and the government delegation on the outcome of his talks with the rebels.

Hadi formed a committee of advisers and delegates to the talks to "prepare a document containing the government's view on resuming its participation" in the negotiations, a government official told AFP.
Abdullah al-Olaimi, deputy manager of Yemen's presidential office, tweeted that the government delegation will not be in Kuwait today.
More than two months of negotiations between Hadi's Saudi-backed government and the rebels have failed to make any headway.
The government is calling for implementation of UN Security Council resolution 2216 which requires the rebels and their allies to withdraw from areas they have occupied since 2014, including the capital Sanaa, and hand over heavy weapons.

Hadi on Sunday warned that his government would boycott the talks if the UN envoy insists on a roadmap stipulating a unity government that includes the insurgents.