Top Yemen official calls for new approach to handle civil war

Sanaa: Rashad al-Alimi, chief of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), has called on the international community to drastically change its long-standing approach to dealing with his country's years-long civil war.

Al-Alimi said during his speech at the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly that there's a necessity for the international community to adopt a new approach to Yemen's crisis and put an end to the world's worst humanitarian sufferings, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the state-run Saba news agency, al-Alimi confirmed the PLC's commitment to the peace option as the only solution to Yemen's deadly conflict.

"The PLC has opted for peace approach since the first day in order to put an end to the humanitarian sufferings, eliminate the coup, restore the state and go on establishing freedoms, human rights, equal citizenship, empower women and youths to contribute to building up sustainable peace," said al-Alimi.

He blamed the Houthi militia for prolonging the war, worsening the Yemeni peoples' sufferings by blocking all regional and international peace proposals and efforts.

"Since the early days of the Yemeni crisis, we sought for peace, but the militias have never honored any agreement it has signed. We engaged in negotiations with the militias several times, starting on the eve of the militias' taking over the capital Sanaa in September 2014.

"We do confirm in this regard the PLC's principled stance that we welcome renewing the truce provided that it should not be at the expense of the Yemenis' future, it should not offer the militias more time to prepare for a new cycle of bloody war," al-Alimi continued.

He urged the international community to support the Yemeni government's efforts to establish peace, saying "there is no better way to help the people than sustaining the legitimate government's efforts to establish freedom values, peace and civil co-existence".

Yemen and the Saudi-led Arab coalition accuse Iran of aggravating instability by backing and supplying Houthi rebels with weapons, which has been repeatedly denied by both the militia group and Tehran.

The Houthi rebels backed by some anti-government army units have been controlling much of Yemen's north by military force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.

The civil war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 4 million, and pushed the country to the brink of starvation.