YEMEN’S US-backed former president has pulled out of peace talks with rival forces, his office said yesterday.

Saudi-based Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said he would not negotiate with Ali Abdullah Saleh and his supporters in the army and the Houthi clan unless they surrender territory and arms.

Mr Hadi demanded that they accept a United Nations resolution that obliges them to withdraw from areas they have seized and give up weapons taken from state institutions.

His attempt to derail the UN-brokered talks followed the so-called Houthi rebels intensifying attacks on Hadi forces in the southern city of Taiz.

A bombing campaign by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab nations has failed to dislodge Mr Saleh’s forces from the capital Sanaa and much of the north and west of the country.

But the air strikes have killed thousands of civilians and added to the humanitarian crisis since starting in March.

The covert involvement of coalition ground forces was revealed when five soldiers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were killed in early August.

The presence of Saudi forces were confirmed on September 5 when rockets fired by Saleh loyalists struck a coalition munitions dump, causing a huge explosion that killed 10 Saudi troops along with dozens of Emiratis.

The Emirati death toll in that attack rose from 45 to 52 after seven more bodies arrived in the capital Abu Dhabi on Saturday following identification in Saudi Arabia.

It was the UAE army’s heaviest loss of life since 1971.

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