Saudi’s unilateral Yemen cease-fire offer rejected by rebels

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels holding Yemen’s capital plans a unilateral cease-fire to begin early Wednesday ahead of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The Houthis rejected the proposal as “meaningless” without the coalition fully reopening the country’s ports. The coalition planned to begin the unilateral cease-fire at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) to facilitate negotiations in the kingdom that Yemen’s Houthi rebels are boycotting. It wasn’t immediately clear how long the unilateral cease-fire would last and how the coalition would respond if the Houthis did not comply. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015. It is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.