Houthis dodged peacemaking efforts on Wednesday, raising the bar of preconditioning last minute delayed consultations scheduled to launch in Geneva.
The Iran-backed group put forward new conditions, both surprising the public and making it difficult to proceed with consultations.
Houthis said in a statement that the United Nations could arrange for coalition countries to provide an Omani plane to transport neither the delegation to Geneva nor those wounded.
Houthis gave no details on the identity or number of those wounded they intended to transport. They did not inform on the destination those in need of airlifting will be taken.
Contrary to Houthi claims on the lack of authorization for the plane transporting the coupist delegation, Yemeni media published a statement procured from the Yemeni Civil Aviation Authority in which it approved the aircraft transporting the Houthi delegation to Geneva.
Sources in Geneva said the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths had met with the government delegation to discuss the matter and the delegation informed him that consultations could not begin without the arrival of the rival party delegation.
Griffiths had previously told reporters in Geneva that Yemen's first round of peace talks in almost three years aimed to build confidence between the warring sides.
He calls this an opportunity to restart talks. Griffiths does not underestimate the difficulties ahead, but said it will be important to focus on confidence-building measures to reactivate the peace process.
“Confidence-building measures are designed partly to help build this trust through agreements on them, partly to actually deliver some benefits for the people of Yemen and partly to send a signal to the international community and the people of Yemen that something is happening,” Griffiths said.
“We need to discover what the sticking points are,” Griffiths said.
“We need to discover in this kind of formal, informal setting what the parties are prepared to do and what they are prepared to prioritize, both in terms of substance, which will come in a later round and in terms of these confidence-building measures.”
In the meantime, the Saudi-led Arab Coalition announced intercepting a ballistic missile targeting the Saudi border city, Najran. In the process, 23 people were injured.
Saudi Arabia is leading an alliance of Arab states trying to restore the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2015.
