NEW YORK: The UN special envoy for Yemen who will be leading peace talks between the government and Shiite rebels said Friday that peace has never been as close as it is today.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the agreement by both sides to an open-ended cessation of hostilities that began at midnight on April 10 and their commitment to attend the talks starting Monday in Kuwait highlight the potential for peace.

He urged the government and the rebels known as Houthis to “drop their destructive and belligerent attitudes,” agree to overcome obstacles, and restore peace after more than 18 months of war. The conflict has killed more than 6,400 people, injured over 30,000, and devastated the Arab world’s most impoverished country.

“Yemen is now at a critical crossroads,” he told the UN Security Council. “One path leads to peace while the other can only worsen the security and humanitarian situation.”

Ould Cheikh Ahmed said recent events over the last weeks “have given me hope” despite “a worrying number of serious violations” of the cessation of hostilities and fighting in the city of Taiz, which the rebels have besieged for nearly a year.

“On the security front,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said, “Yemen is facing a brutal war on one hand and a significant terrorist threat on the other.”

In the search for peace, he noted that the government and rebels praised Saudi Arabia for agreeing to settle border disputes with the Houthis, which paved the way for the cessation of hostilities.

At the peace talks, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said “a positive outcome will require difficult compromises from all sides, as well as determination to reach an agreement.”