Saleh's exit will help Yemen settlement: UAE

The departure of deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh from the conflict-battered Arab country will help reach a political settlement to end the war, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has said.

Anwar Gargash said Saleh’s forces and his Houthi allies have been under great pressure over the past days because of their military defeats in Taiz and other areas overturn by Yemen’s national army and resistance fighters, backed by intensified attacks launched by Arab coalition warplanes.

In a brief comment on his Twitter page, he said the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saleh’s forces appeared to be split over their participation in the planned UN-brokered peace negotiations in Geneva because of their defeats on the battle field.

“The success of the peace negotiations and the efforts by the UN envoy in this regard should push towards the exit of the deposed Saleh from Yemen,” Gargash said.

“The absence of Saleh from the Yemeni scene will greatly contribute to the success of a political settlement in the country.”

He said Saleh’s absence would give the delegates to the peace negotiations more freedom and “remove a major block to a political solution.”

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