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Voting on UN Security Council resolution on Yemen possible this week — source

Talks are being held on two drafts on of the document, one of them prepared by Russia

UNITED NATIONS, April 6. /TASS/. Voting on the UN Security Council resolution on Yemen is expected in the middle of this week, a diplomatic source told TASS on Monday.

Talks are being held on two drafts on of the document, one of them prepared by Russia, the source said. "Negotiations on two drafts continue. The possibility of converging them into one document is also discussed," he noted. "There will be no voting tomorrow. It may take place in the middle of the week, but everything will depend on how discussions proceed," the source added.

Another diplomat said that certain disagreements remain between member-countries of the UN Security Council. "We hope we will manage to overcome them, and agree on the text," the diplomat stressed.

On April 4, Russia proposed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that called for establishing "regular and obligatory" pauses in military actions in Yemen for evacuating people and ensuring "safe and unhampered humanitarian access" to provide assistance to people.

Another draft resolution was proposed by the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. It envisages an embargo on supplying arms to Houthi rebels and expresses support for the military operation against them.

Russia’s permanent mission to the UN refrained from commenting the pace of talks in the Security Council.

On Sunday, the UN reported that 549 have been killed in Yemen since March 19, including 217 civilians.

Since August 2014, Yemen has been hit by a severe political and security crisis. In late January, the armed groups of Ansar Allah (Houthi rebels) forced the president and the government to announce resignation.

The rebels later took control of the country’s capital and several northern provinces. They also announced the adoption of the so-called constitutional declaration.

Overnight to March 26, Saudi Arabia launched a military operation in the neighboring country and delivered air strikes at several Houthi positions. Yemeni President Abd Rabbah Mansur Hadi fled the country to Saudi Arabia.

Houthi rebels are currently fighting pro-government forces over control of Yemen’s second-largest city of Aden.

The coalition is currently considering launching a ground operation in Yemen to oust Houthis.