Warring Yemen parties are in Geneva, but not in the same room

The United Nations has managed to get warring sides in the Yemen conflict to come to Geneva, hoping the near-meeting will result in a humanitarian pause. Just getting them in the same city, they say, is a major step forward

The government of Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi was forced from power in February by the Houthis, and it's primary backer, former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. In late March, Hadi and his government fled to Saudi Arabia just as a Saudi-led coalition began daily air strikes targeting Houthi fighters and military forces loyal to Saleh. With the exception of a five-day humanitarian pause in May — frequently violated — the war has been going on ever since. 

So observers took it as a hopeful sign when representatives of Yemen's exiled president attended UN-sponsored talks in Geneva on Monday. The Houthis, delayed by travel, came on Tuesday. "Both sides are in the building," said the BBC's Imogen Foulkes, reporting from UN headquarters Tuesday afternoon, "but they have yet to meet face-to-face."

"I think the United Nations is pleased they've actually got them to Geneva," she says, "but even before this happened, I think the thing the UN was hoping to persuade the Houthis, in particular, to support a humanitarian pause to let aid supplies be delivered."  On Monday, UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon called for a two-week ceasefire that would "allow critical assistance to reach all Yemenis in need and provide a respite for Yemenis as the holy month of Ramadan begins."

Since March 26, the Saudi-led bombing campaign has pummelled Houthi and Saleh positions around Yemen. In the country's five major cities, airstrikes have killed more than 1400 civilians, and created a humanitarian crisis for an estimated one million internally displaced people.  

"Saudi Arabia has said it will continue its bombing because the Houthis, who promised to let up with the fighting on the ground, have not done so," says Foulkes. The Saudis are not a party to the UN-sponsored talks. "But," says Foulkes, "they are monitoring the talks closely, as part of the Group of Sixteen Ambassadors. And while they are not at the table, you can imagine that if the Yemeni government in exile — exiled in Saudi Arabia — said 'Yes, we are going to go for a ceasefire,' you would think they would also be able to persuade their Saudi backers to go along with it. They are are working very closely together on this."

The United States, which is also part of the Group of Sixteen, has its own strategic interests in Yemen and is watching the talks closely.

"Washington knows, and Ban Ki-moon has mentioned, that Yemen is an increasingly destabilized state, in danger of becoming a failed state," observes Foulkes. "And it is fertile breeding ground for all sorts of extremist groups. There are clans, there are tribal factions, old enmities resurfacing in this conflict, and those are the things the United Nations would like to address first. It does need the support of the international community and the regional powers, and obviously the big international powers like the US. But first and foremost, the push is to get the Yemenis themselves to sit down and talk about how we fix this."

The problem is, at the moment, the Yemenis are not sitting at the same table, or even in the same room.