COLOMBO: US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday the United States was working "very hard" to help negotiate a solution to the crisis in war-torn Yemen through the United Nations.
Speaking to reporters in Sri Lanka, Kerry said it was not inevitable that Yemen, the scene of Saudi-led air strikes on Huthi rebels, would become a failed state.
"I will not say yet that the verdict is in on what Yemen is going to be because we are trying very hard, working with the UN, working with our friends in the region," he said.
"We are working hard to secure a negotiated process through the UN which will bring the parties together, Yemenites to negotiate the future of Yemen.
"We are having discussions over the course of every day right now in order to push towards this and our hope is that the UN process may be able (to) actually take hold before too long," Kerry added.
The diplomat was in Colombo for talks with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.
His comments came after the UN Security Council failed Friday to back a Russian appeal for an immediate ceasefire or humanitarian pauses in war-torn Yemen.
Russia requested an urgent meeting of the 15-member council as the air strikes entered a sixth week, crippling deliveries of fuel, food and medicine.
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