US urges immediate end to hostilities in Yemen
The State Department called for the immediate
cessation of hostilities in Yemen and urged the warring sides to return to
UN-backed peace talks to end the 3-1/2-year conflict, US News reported.
The department's deputy spokesman, Robert Palladino,
urged the Iran-aligned Houthi group to immediately cease missile and drone
strikes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and told the Saudi-led
coalition to halt air strikes in populated areas in Yemen.
"We have come to the assessment that the
climate is right at this time to move forward," Palladino said referring
to a resumption of UN peace talks after they collapsed in September.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis called for a
ceasefire in war-torn Yemen within the next 30 days during a discussion at the
US Institute of Peace (USIP) on Tuesday.
