UK’s Foreign Secretary urges peace efforts on visit to Yemen’s Aden

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (R) walks with his Yemeni counterpart Khaled al-Yamani (C) in government-held Aden on March 3, 2019. (AFP)

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt held talks with his Yemeni counterpart in the temporary capital Aden on Sunday, in the first visit by a western foreign minister to the war-torn country in years.

“I am here because this is really the last chance for peace,” Hunt said from Aden, in a video uploaded to his Twitter account.

Hunt held talks with Yemen’s top diplomat Khaled al-Yamani on the conflict and “international efforts to bring peace to Yemen”, state news agency Saba said.

They discussed an agreement on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange between the warring sides, brokered by the United Nations at talks in Sweden in December, Saba said.

On Friday, Hunt tweeted a picture with Mohammed Abdelsalam, head of the Houthi militia’s delegation to the UN talks, saying the two had met in the Gulf state of Oman to discuss the implementation of the Sweden agreements.

Hunt’s visit to Aden comes a day after he met with Yemen’s President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in Saudi Arabia.

While in the kingdom Hunt also held talks with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz al-Assaf and Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir.