United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Yemeni parties to extend the truce that expires on Sunday, amid fears of renewed fighting between the government and the Houthi group.
Guterres said, in a statement read out by his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, on Friday evening, that the truce brought many benefits to Yemenis.
For its part, the US State Department said that Secretary Anthony Blinken renewed yesterday, in contact with the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, US support for efforts aimed at extending and expanding the armistice and finding a permanent solution to the conflict through a comprehensive political process led by Yemenis.
Blinken said that the armistice offers Yemen the best chance for peace in years and provides relief to its people and the longest period of relative calm, expressing his concerns about the recent Houthi measures, which he said prevent Yemenis from benefiting from the benefits of the armistice, as he put it.
The Secretary of State welcomed the Yemeni government's management of the truce, including its commitment to paying civil servants' salaries, expanding freedom of movement, and ensuring the flow of fuel throughout Yemen.
Blinken also discussed, in a telephone conversation with his Omani counterpart Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, the issue of the truce, which is about to expire.
The US State Department said - in a statement - that it welcomed the commitment of the Sultanate of Oman to extend the truce, in addition to its efforts to ensure the expansion of the truce, which contributes to the delivery of additional vital aid to millions of Yemenis.
ghost war return
Blinken reiterated his concern over the resumption of the war, which he said would only bring more destruction and suffering, and unjustifiably delay a future in which Yemenis enjoy peace, according to the US State Department statement.
And last Sunday, the spokesman for the Houthi group, Muhammad Abdul Salam, set 3 demands to achieve what he described as stability in Yemen: the payment of salaries, an end to what he described as the siege on Sanaa Airport (north) and the port of Hodeidah (west), and the establishment of a ceasefire.
On the other hand, the head of the Presidential Command Council in Yemen, Rashad Al-Alimi, accused the Houthi group of evading the implementation of its obligations under the UN armistice.
The truce period witnessed clashes between the Yemeni forces and the Houthis on some fronts, in which both sides were killed.
On the second of last August, the United Nations announced the agreement of the Yemeni government and the Houthi group to extend the truce between them for an additional two months.