The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir announced here today that a five-day ceasefire in Yemen will begin next Tuesday. In a statement at a press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Paris today that the truce requires that Houthi militia and its allies, including the ousted President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh and forces loyal to him should commit themselves to the truce. He also said that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, had already appropriated an amount of $ 274 million for relief assistance as part of the efforts exerted by the United Nations in Yemen in this regard. This is in addition to the assistance provided by Saudi Arabia to Yemen, pointing out that there will be a lot of organizations and other countries that would like to participate in the distribution of aid in Yemen. He added that we hope that those who support the Houthis would, during this period, support the leaders in order to seize and commit to this important and expressive, opportunity, stressing that ceasefire does not mean peace, but all parties should find their way to return to the negotiating table and they have to make hard choices more than ceasefire. He recalled that the monarch has called for the convening of a conference in Riyadh under the auspices of the United Nations and the UN special envoy to Yemen, calling all Yemeni parties to take part. He expressed hope that the conference would lead to steps forward to reach a political solution to the situation in Yemen, vowing that Saudi Arabia is committed to work for contacts what would restore all parties to prompt and unconditioned talks in a way that allows Yemen to enter into a comprehensive political process. He said today's meeting, in Paris in which Kerry took part, dealt with the 5+1 talks regarding the Iranian nuclear issue in addition to the agenda of Camp David scheduled meeting to be held in Washington on 13-14 May between the GCC leaders and the U.S. president Barack Obama.For his part, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the ceasefire is conditioned by Houthi agreement that there would be no fire launching or moving of troops or heavy weapons. If they committed themselves to these issues, this would usher into a possibility of extending the truce and entering into a political process to solve the difference, he said, noting that any Yemeni party should plainly perceive the fact that a humanitarian disaster is taking place in Yemen and the Yemenis are lacking medical facilities, food and fuel. Kerry added that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has made the initiative of calling for convening a conference in Riyadh under the auspices of the United Nations and the UN special envoy to Yemen, in which all Yemeni parties will be invited. He voiced support for that conference, expressing hope that the conference would lead to steps forward to reach a political solution to the situation in Yemen. He said the U.S. is committed to work for contacts that would bring all parties to prompt and unconditioned talks in a way that allows Yemen to enter into a comprehensive political process. He stressed that ceasefire does not mean peace, but all parties in Yemen should find their way to return to the negotiating table. He expressed pleasure that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has agreed to support the UN efforts exerted to try to find a peaceful solution in Yemen. He said the GCC countries were in the center of Yemeni U.S. interests for a long time and today, we find ourselves dealing and cooperating on many challenges inside the region which faces a threat at this time in particular, so, imperatively, we will have joint interests regarding our common security and other interests at stake, he added. He went on to say that we found that it is a must for us to attach our relations to ways of cooperation and to make more emphasis on the joint challenges which we face. The United States is grateful to have partners who are ready to stand by its side in its coalition against the so-called terrorist ISIS organization, he said. He expressed pleasure to have met with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh yesterday and find the five-day ceasefire in Yemen decision finally taken before him, a decision we reiterated here in Paris. On the Iranian nuclear affairs, Kerry said that efforts aiming to finding a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program are not derived from any degradation of the sources of concern regarding those other incidents in the region which lead to destabilizing the region as became apparent that it is easy to deal with these incidents with the possibility of a nuclear weapon, which is wiped out through the equation related to the challenges we are facing. Kerry said that we are continuously and dramatically focusing on the challenges we are facing from the so-called terrorist ISIS organization and other terrorist groups. 'Together we believe that we are making real progress. And we are meeting today, in addition to the reasons we talked about, to state that all of us ought to come to meet to face the new challenges at this historic moment', he said, adding that President Barack Obama absolutely understands what is at stake. The U.S. secretary of state said 'we are going to draft more commitments which will create a new security arrow between the U.S. and Gulf region and a new security initiative that would overpass the past to make it a demand by our partners to share contribution as the matter has become a sharing rather than a unilateral issue'. 'There are joint interests that we should deal with. So, together we enhance the opposition in Syria against ISIS and against the regime which committed atrocities, tortured its people, used chemical gas against them, particularly against children and women, destroyed hospitals, and schools and deprived people from access to food and humanitarian and medical assistance', he said. He said Camp David summit would come out with these ideas which will enhance our ability to meet the needs of our peoples and all people who love a terror-free coercion-free and violence-free future reflected by the peace chances towards which we are working and would continue working.
