New Yemen UN special envoy on

The new U.N. special envoy for Yemen said Friday that the Arab world’s poorest nation is “stuck in an indefinite state of war”, and resuming negotiations to end the conflict won’t be easy. Hans Grundberg, a Swedish diplomat who took up the post four days ago after serving as the European Union’s ambassador to Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council that international mediation was "long overdue".

The Security Council welcomed Grundberg's appointment and said in a brief statement that it expects the parties to meet with him “and with each other under U,N. auspices, in good faith and without preconditions.” Yemen has been convulsed by civil war since 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital of Sanaa and much of the northern part of the country, forcing the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.

Yemen's U.N. representative Abdullah al-Saadi on Friday urged the international community to give "generous support" to his government to ensure economic stability and provide development as well as humanitarian assistance.