U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva on a ceasefire between Yemen's warring parties ended on Friday without a deal as Saudi warplanes staged further strikes on the dominant Houthis and allies including elite Republican Guards.
Hamza Al-Houthi, head of the Houthi delegation to the talks, put the blame on Saudi Arabia, which is in support of Mansour Hadi.
"There is clear and systematic obstruction from the aggressors, at the head of them Saudi Arabia, and this obstruction is aimed at ensuring that the Yemenis don’t come out with clear solutions and so that the aggression continues and the siege on the Yemeni people continues,' he said.
We do not say that the Geneva conference failed, but rather that it was a first step, and there were acts of obstruction that were clear and systematic aimed at ensuring that no clear results come out of this conference," Al-Houthi told a news conference on Friday night.
U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that in five days of "proximity talks" - in which he shuttled between factions who refused to sit at the same table - the two sides agreed in principle on the need for a ceasefire and withdrawal of forces in keeping with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216.