UN envoy warns resumption of war remains threat in Yemen unless parties reach new cease-fire deal

By SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations’ top official in Yemen warns that the Arab world’s poorest country will remain a powder keg for renewed war unless its rival factions work out a new cease-fire deal. Hans Grundberg tells said Monday that the situation in Yemen remains fragile nearly a year after the internationally recognized government and th e Iranian-backed Houthi rebels failed to renew a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. The conflict has been restrained since then, with only sporadic clashes, but Grundberg says a resumption of all-out fighting is a threat. The failure to renew the cease-fire arrangement was a blow to U.N. efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the conflict, which devastated the country and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.