US urges Yemen's Houthis to extend truce amid fears of renewed fighting
The United States is seeking the renewal of a nationwide truce that brought a much-needed pause in violence to Yemen before it expired on Sunday.
The Biden administration is urging the Houthis to negotiate in good faith after Yemen's warring parties failed to renew a truce that for the past six months has brought relative calm to the embattled country.
“The United States expresses its deep concern that the UN-mediated truce in Yemen expired on October 2 without the parties reaching an agreement to extend it,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Monday evening.
Price continued that the United States “urges the Houthis to continue negotiations in good faith and work with the UN to come to an agreement to extend the truce and keep Yemen on the path to peace.”
Under the United Nations-brokered truce, which was announced in early April and twice renewed before its expiration on Sunday, Yemen experienced a 60% drop in casualties and increased humanitarian access to a country where more than two-thirds of the population requires outside aid to survive.
