Saudi-Led Coalition: Yemen Ceasefire Isn’t Question Now

The Saudi-led coalition waging a war on Yemen said on Monday it would prefer a broad political settlement to a ceasefire.

“I think now it’s not a question of talking about a ceasefire,” coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri told AFP.

Late on Sunday, the head of the new Yemeni council, Saleh al-Sammad, proposed on Sunday a truce on the country’s border with Saudi Arabia.

Assiri said the coalition welcomes “any effort to have a genuine political settlement” under a peace initiative proposed last month by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

This is preferable to a “short ceasefire without any control, without any observation”, he said.

Previous truces in the 18-month war collapsed after continuous and deadly strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which prompted the Yemeni army and the popular committees of Ansarullah revolutionaries to respond by firing rockets on Saudi border areas.

“If they want to have a ceasefire they know what they have to do,” Assiri said, referring to terms of the Kerry plan which were to be refined under United Nations mediation among the parties.