Houthi rebels to rejoin Kuwait peace talks on Friday

Yemen's Houthi rebels are set to resume UN-mediated peace talks on Friday in Kuwait, amid threats of a boycott by the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

The Houthi delegation - which is led by negotiators from the movement's Ansar Allah political wing - departed to the Persian Gulf state on Thursday.

This latest round will once again attempt to bring the sides to an agreement, after numerous failures and setbacks in previous discussions.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government has insisted that UN Security Council Resolution 2216 be implemented, which requires armed groups to withdraw from all cities. The Houthis, however, have intensified their military operations since taking the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014.

The Houthi movement have themselves demanded a power share in a new ruling structure, as well as asking that Hadi relinquish his authority to a transitional government.

The negotiations have remained stagnant despite more than two months of going back and forth as both sides refuse to look past "fundamental differences".

The United Nations' Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has urged both sides to make concessions to end the conflict, which has cost more than 6,400 lives since March 2015 and displaced 2.8 million people.

In his attempt to get the sides to agree, Cheikh Ahmed has put forward a peace roadmap that would see the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal and disarmament of the rebels.