The Government on Thursday announced plans to recommence stalled political party talks in July.
Fisheries Minister Dr. Mohamed Shainee would represent the Government at the talks. The talks would be mediated by the UN Special Envoy Samuel Tamrat.
Referring to the latest round of talks, Dr. Shainee said the opposition had violated their agreement to prevent details of the discussions from being made public. He described this as an obstacle for the talks.
The opposition said it would be represented at the talks by the recently established coalition, the Maldives United Opposition. Responding to this, Dr. Shainee said the Government is calling political parties for talks, and noted there was no political party by the name of the Maldives United Opposition.
The latest round of talks failed after the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Adhaalath Party refused to participate. MDP put forth as a pre-condition the release of former President Mohamed Nasheed who was serving a 13-year jail term on terrorism charges. Adhaalath Party also pre-conditioned the release of Sheikh Imran Abdulla, who is serving a 12-year terrorism sentence.