Kuwait Talks Resumed

United Nations-sponsored talks to end nearly 16 months of war in Yemen resumed in Kuwait on Saturday delegates

said, despite threats by representatives of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government not to attend. A shaky ceasefire that began when the talks started in April has helped slow down the fighting but clashes continue in various parts of the country where Islamist militants have taken advantage of a security vacuum to launch a string of bombings. The talks bring together the Iranian-allied Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement and Yemen's internationally-recognised government, but have achieved little concrete progress in over two months. Two delegates said only a ceremonial meeting was scheduled for Saturday night in the presence of the U.N. special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. Both sides would get down to bargaining on Sunday.

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