GENEVA: Iran-backed Yemeni rebels Tuesday accused Saudi Arabia of trying to sabotage peace talks in Geneva and accused the exiled government of trying to impose its own agenda on the U.N.

The rebels arrived a day late in Geneva Tuesday for the U.N.-backed talks after being stranded in Djibouti– a fact they blamed on Riyadh.

Rebel negotiating team member Mohammad Zubairi defiantly told reporters: “We refuse any dialogue with those who have no legitimacy,” referring to the internationally recognized exiled government.

He said they instead wanted talks with Saudi Arabia, which has been leading an aerial campaign against the Houthi rebels since March 26, “to stop the aggression.”

The United Nations is desperately trying to get the rebels, who control a large swath of terrain including the capital Sanaa, and the exiled government to agree to a badly needed humanitarian truce.

But any hope of a thaw appeared bleak with exiled President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi repeating Tuesday that his side was only prepared to discuss with the rebels a Security Council resolution ordering their pullout from seized territory.

And Abdulmalek al-Houthi, the leader of the Shiite rebels who bear his name, appeared equally inflexible.

“They tried to impose their own agenda,” Houthi said in a televised speech, accusing the Yemeni government of using the United Nations and special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as a “tool.”

“Leave to the United Nations some neutrality to continue its mission ... Stop your continuous attempts to control its new envoy,” Houthi said.

A U.N.-chartered plane carrying the rebels had left Sanaa Sunday afternoon but was forced to wait in Djibouti for nearly 24 hours, forcing them to miss Monday’s opening of the talks and a meeting with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

The rebels accused Egypt and Sudan of not allowing their plane to fly through their airspace.

“It was Saudi Arabia which asked its allies” to take the action with the aim of “torpedoing the negotiations,” Adel Shujah, another member of the rebel team, told AFP after arriving in Geneva.

He said they were able to travel on to Switzerland after the United States and Oman intervened.

Yemen has been wracked by conflict between Iran-backed Shiite rebels and troops loyal to Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia in February.

Global powers are keen for a speedy resolution, fearing the growing power of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of the jihadi network that has exploited the chaos to seize territory.

Ban Monday underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian truce in Yemen for at least two weeks to mark the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in order to furnish critical supplies to millions of people facing acute shortages.

The United Nations has described Yemen’s humanitarian crisis as “catastrophic,” with 80 percent of the population – 20 million people – in need of aid.

The U.N. children’s agency said Tuesday that at least 279 children had been killed in conflict in Yemen since the Saudi-led strikes began – a figure four times higher than for the whole of last year.

The rebels’ participation in the talks is conditional on them whittling down their inflated presence, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

He said before the rebels joined the talks, the U.N. wanted to ensure they adhered to “the 7 3 principle, that is seven principals and three advisers” on the negotiating team.

The rebels have come with as many as 22 members.

The Mauritanian special envoy for Yemen Ould Cheikh Ahmed also repeated this condition at a news conference late Tuesday.

“Having two delegations in Geneva is an achievement. It is a difficult path,” he said.

Both experts and some participants are pessimistic about the outcome of the talks.

The positions of the two warring sides are so divergent that they will not be sitting in the same room and the U.N. will be holding separate consultations with them.

The rebels are supported by military units loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh.