(VOVworld) – A United Nations conference designed to promote peace in war-ravaged Yemen has been postponed, a UN official says, just four days before it was due to begin.

Houthi rebels are transporting the Saudi Arabia’s airplane shot down in Bani Harith in North of Yemen to capital Saana (Photo: Reuters)

There had been growing uncertainty that warring Yemeni parties would attend the talks, slated to begin on Thursday in Geneva. Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi laid out his government's demands to attend the talks unless Shiite Houthi rebels withdraw from territory they have seized. Meanwhile, Houthi leader Abdul Malek Al Houthi said negotiation is the only way forward for the Yemeni conflict, adding that he would return to the peace talks if the allied troops led by Saudi Arabia ended their air strikes.