Yemen rebels have reservations over gov't truce timetable: mediator

Shiite rebels from northern Yemen have voiced reservations over a timetable set by the government to implement six conditions for a ceasefire to end their months-long conflict, a mediator said on Monday.

"Abdel Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthi rebels, said that the mechanism is inapplicable on the ground," Hassan Zaid, head of al-Haq party and a mediator between the government and the rebels, told Pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV.

"Al-Houthi also demanded (opposition alliance) Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) to serve as a national guarantee or monitor to oversee the ceasefire," he added.

On Saturday, Yemeni government said that it handed over a timetable to the Shiite Houthis for that would see the formation of five committees comprising members from the Assembly of Representatives and Shura Council as well as representatives from the Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia.

The committees will monitor the implementation of the government's terms for the ceasefire, which Sanaa has insisted that rebels must approve if they want an end to military attacks against their posts.

The conditions include full withdrawal of rebel forces from all districts they occupied and removal of all road blocks, coming down from their hideouts on the mountains, return of all military and public equipment seized during battles, release of detained military personnel and kidnapped civilians and abiding by the Yemeni constitution and law.

Another condition set recently by the government calls on the rebels to stop infiltration into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Al-Houthi also demands the formation of a committee featuring representatives from the rebel group, the government and the JMP to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, Zaid said.

Sources close to the rebels revealed that Houthis also refuse the presence of Yemeni government troops on the northern borders with Saudi Arabia, saying the group wants its forces deployed along the borders so that the government will not surround the rebels and "hit them from the back."

A week ago, leader of the Yemeni rebels said they are ready to accept the government conditions after it stops fighting against them.

On Aug. 11, the Yemeni army launched an all-out offensive, dubbed "Operation Scorched Earth," against Houthi rebels who Sanaa says seek to re-establish the clerical rule overthrown by the 1962 Yemeni revolution that yielded the republic.

The latest conflict between Yemeni government troops and the Houthi rebels in the northern province of Saada is the sixth of its kind since 2004.

Source: Xinhua