Yemen govt rejects UN -backed talks

Yemen's exiled government backed out of UN-brokered peace talks as loyalist forces supported by a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive yesterday against Shia Huthi rebels.

A military official said the offensive aimed to push the Iran-backed rebels out of the oil-rich Marib province east of Sanaa and eventually move on the capital, which the rebels seized a year ago.

President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government, which has fled to Saudi Arabia, said Friday it would join UN-mediated talks this week in Oman.

But in a short statement overnight Hadi's office said the government would not join the talks unless the rebels first accept a UN resolution demanding their withdrawal from territory they have captured.

The government decided "not to take part in any meeting until the militia recognises Resolution 2216 and agrees to implement it without conditions," the statement said.

The UN's special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had announced that both the government and the rebels agreed to take part in the talks in Oman, the only Gulf Arab state that has not joined the Saudi-led coalition.