Yemen foes resume face-to-face peace talks, says UN

Yemen's warring parties resumed face-to-face peace talks on May 4, after a three-day break triggered by a walkout by the government delegation, the United Nations said.

It is only the second round of face-to-face talks in the hard-won negotiations to end a devastating conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.

"The plenary session has started. All are present including the government delegation," the U.N. envoy's spokesman, Charbel Raji, told AFP.

U.N. special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed tweeted May 4 a picture of delegates representing the main warring sides sitting around a U-shaped table and said talks would focus on cementing the shaky cease-fire.

The negotiations, which began on April 21, broke off on May 1 after the government delegation quit in protest at the apparent surrender of one of the few loyalist bases in the northern mountains to Iran-backed rebels.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the two sides had agreed that a monitoring committee supervising an April 11 ceasefire would launch a fact-finding mission into the rebels' takeover of the Al-Amaliqa base in Amran province, one of their strongholds.

The committee will submit a report within 72 hours with practical recommendations that all sides pledge to carry out, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said.

Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi, who heads the government delegation, has demanded a rebel pullout.

The United Nations stressed the need to strengthen cease-fire monitoring committees on the ground, particularly in and around battleground third city Taez, where loyalist troops have been under siege for months, trapping tens of thousands of civilians.

Human Rights Watch, which has...