An Armed Yemeni fighter, loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, fires a mortar shell during clashes with Shiite Houthi rebels in the area of Jaadan, in Marib province east of the capital Sanaa on May 15, 2015.(Photo: STR, AFP/Getty Images)
A five-day humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen ended Sunday night with airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition resuming, the Associated Press reported. The airstrikes began shortly after the start of a three-day set of talks on the future of crisis-hit Yemen.
The talks in Saudi Arabia began without the Shiite Houthi rebels who control the capital and much of the north of the country.
Around 400 Yemeni politicians and tribal leaders are taking part in the conference in Riyadh, but the Iran-backed Houthis are not, the Associated Press reported.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the United Nations envoy to Yemen, opened the summit by calling on all parties to ensure that a humanitarian five-day cease-fire to allow aid to reach residents — and due to expire late Sunday — leads to a lasting truce, the AP said.
He called for a cease-fire extension, saying: "I call on all parties to renew their commitment to this truce for five more days at least," the
Middle East Eye reported.
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At the conference, Yemen's internationally-recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi urged the U.N. Security Council to work on the implementation of resolution 2216, which imposes sanctions against the Houthi leader and ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh,
Al Arabiya News reported.
He said the Houthis will soon be defeated, according to the broadcaster.
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The cease-fire has been repeatedly violated, with the Saudi-led coalition (which has been carrying out airstrikes on Houthi positions) and the rebels each blaming each other.
The Saudis and their allies, who began the bombing campaign March 26, want Hadi, who fled the country in March, to be restored.
Last week, the U.N. Security Council called on Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to convene talks with the aim of finding a solution and called on all Yemeni parties to attend.
Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen in Washington, tweeted that there had been an initial agreement among all of Yemen's political factions to resume United Nations-brokered talks by the end of May with the aim of resolving the crisis.
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