Iran-backed Yemeni rebels today accused Saudi Arabia of trying to sabotage peace talks in Geneva and accused the exiled government of trying to impose its own agenda on the UN.
The rebels arrived a day late in Geneva on Tuesday for the UN-backed talks after being stranded in Djibouti -- a fact they blamed on Riyadh.
Rebel negotiating team member Mohammed Zubairi defiantly told reporters: "We refuse any dialogue with those who have no legitimacy," referring to the internationally recognised exiled government.
He said they instead wanted talks with Saudi Arabia, which has been leading an aerial campaign against the Huthi rebels since March 26, "to stop the aggression".
The United Nations is desperately trying to get the rebels, who control a large swath of terrain including the capital Sanaa, and the exiled government to agree to a badly-needed humanitarian truce.
But any hope of a thaw appeared bleak with exiled president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi repeating Tuesday that his side was only prepared to discuss with the rebels a Security Council resolution ordering their withdrawal from seized territory.
And Abdulmalek al-Huthi, the leader of the Shiite rebels who bear his name, appeared equally inflexible.
"They tried to impose their own agenda," said Huthi in a televised speech, accusing the Yemeni government of using the United Nations and special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as a "tool."
"Leave to the United Nations some neutrality to continue its mission... Stop your continuous attempts to control its new envoy," said Huthi.
A UN-chartered plane carrying the rebels had left Sanaa on Sunday afternoon but was forced to wait in Djibouti for nearly 24 hours, forcing them to miss Monday's opening of the talks and a meeting with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
The rebels accused Egypt and Sudan of not allowing their plane to fly through their airspace.
"It was Saudi Arabia which asked its allies" to take the action with the aim of "torpedoing the negotiations", Adel Shujah, another member of the rebel team, told AFP after arriving in Geneva.
He said they were able to travel on to Switzerland after the United States and Oman intervened.
