(VOVworld) - US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he had agreed in talks with Gulf Arab states and the United Nations in Saudi Arabia on a plan to restart peace talks in Yemen with the goal of forming a unity government.

Clockwise from left to right: US Secretary of State John Kerry,  Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir, British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa Tobias Ellwood, United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Speaking at a press conference with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Thursday, Kerry said the conflict over the past 18 months in which Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes in favor of the exiled government had gone on too long and needed to end. Kerry said the Houthis must cease shelling across the border with Saudi Arabia, pull back from the capital Sanaa which they took control of two years ago, surrender their weapons and enter into a unity government with their domestic foes. Kerry said they had agreed on a renewed approach to negotiations with both a security and political track working simultaneously to provide a comprehensive resolution. The final agreement would include in the first phase the swift formation of a new national unity government, the withdrawal of forces from Sanaa and other areas and the transfer of all heavy weapons, including ballistic missiles, from the Houthis and forces aligned to them to a third party