"He offered to the President (Yameen) UN mediation but the President conveyed that mediation was not wanted at this stage," Haq said on Wednesday. The three judges remaining on the Supreme Court overturned the court's unanimous ruling ordering the release of the nine politicians. On Wednesday, Yameen reiterated his offer to hold negotiations with the opposition. Responding to an earlier offer of talks by Yameen, the Joint Opposition led by Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party wrote to Guterres asking him to mediate and to oversee the talks. The opposition leaders expressed scepticism about the talks offer saying they was concerned that it was a ploy to ease international reaction to its recent actions, according to the Colombo Gazette.

Source: bd News24 February 22, 2018 03:11 UTC