Yemeni leader meets UN envoy in Riyadh to discuss truce renewal

Chief of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, held a meeting with United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on Wednesday to focus on efforts to renew the nationwide truce in the war-ravaged Arab country.
According to the state-run Saba news, Grundberg briefed Al-Alimi on his recent coordinated discussions with Saudi Arabia, Oman, and other members of the international community aimed at resuming a comprehensive Yemeni political process under UN auspices.
The two leaders also discussed developments in the Yemeni conflict, including Saudi mediation efforts towards a nationwide ceasefire, alleviating humanitarian suffering, and reviving the peace process in the country.
Al-Alimi stressed "the necessity of exerting maximum pressure on the Houthi militia and pushing it towards seriously engaging with the ongoing efforts to renew the truce, expand its humanitarian benefits, and achieve the aspirations of the Yemeni people to restore state institutions," according to Saba.
The meeting comes as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the UN lead diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the conflict in Yemen, which has witnessed over nine years of bloody fighting between the government and the Houthi rebel group.
Renewing the nationwide truce, which originally expired in October 2022, is seen as crucial to paving the way for a peace process and ending the long-running civil war that has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Yemen has been embroiled in a devastating civil war since 2014, with the Houthis fighting against the internationally-recognized Yemeni government. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened in the conflict in support of the Yemeni government in 2015.
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