Ban calls for immediate cease-fire

SANAA: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate cease-fire in Yemen and begun the hunt for a new peace envoy to the war-torn country, where Al-Qaeda is expanding its territory.
Yemen “is in flames,” Ban told the press in Washington on Thursday. “I am calling for an immediate cease-fire in Yemen by all parties.”
His remarks followed the resignation of his envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, a Moroccan-born career diplomat who lost the confidence of all parties. Ban has chosen Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed to replace Benomar, diplomatic sources said. Ban said he was in the process of finding a new envoy “who can be immediately deployed” to seek a political solution.
“The Saudis have assured me that they understand there must be a political process,” he said.
“I call on all Yemenis to participate, and in good faith.”
Meanwhile, Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would not leave the country, dismissing reports that he was seeking a safe exit.
“I’m not the type who goes looking for a place to live in Jeddah, Paris or Europe. My country is my birthplace. The person who can say to Ali Abdullah Saleh ‘leave your country’ has not been and will not be born,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
The German government said it has flown more than 100 citizens of Germany and other countries out of Yemen on a plane chartered from a Jordanian airline.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the flight from Sanaa landed safely in Djibouti on Friday. It said those on board included Germans, numerous citizens of other European Union countries and their relatives.
The ministry thanked the government of Saudi Arabia.