The weekend recapture of positions in southern Yemen by Houthi rebels shows they are “not serious” about expected U.N.-led peace talks, Yemen’s foreign minister said Monday.

“We want to go to negotiations in Geneva,” Riad Yassin told AFP on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting in the Saudi capital.

“But what they are doing inside Taiz, and they are trying to re-attack places in the south ... shows that really they are not serious.”

Saudi Arabia, which has led an Arab coalition fighting the rebels in support of local forces since late March, has been optimistic the talks would get underway this month.

With the United Nations also in a new push for talks, after previous stalled attempts at negotiations, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was due in the Saudi capital.

He is to open an Arab-South American summit Tuesday evening, and to hold talks with Saudi leaders.

Ban’s special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told AFP last week that he was “very optimistic” negotiations would start between Nov. 10 and 15.

A 400-strong Sudanese force arrived Monday in Yemen’s port city Aden in support of anti-rebel forces preparing to confront a possible new offensive by Houthi rebels and allied troops loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Military sources told Reuters late Sunday that at least 16 Yemeni soldiers loyal to President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi have been killed by a roadside bomb in the province of Marib east of the capital Sanaa.

The sources said the bomb, which also wounded six soldiers, appeared aimed at a patrol near an army camp in Marib. They said it was not clear who was behind the attack.

The rebels recaptured Damt Saturday, the second city of Daleh province. They also made a “limited advance” over the weekend in the coastal city of Dhubab, a military source said.

The central city of Taiz has seen heavy fighting between the two sides.

The additional Sudanese troops join 500 who arrived in Aden last month, said a commander of forces loyal to the internationally backed government of Hadi.

Asked the total number of forces his country has deployed as part of the coalition in Yemen, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour told AFP: “We have got as many as is required.”

At least 5,600 people have been killed in seven months of war in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula.

Agencies