The new 72-hour ceasefire in Yemen is mostly holding nationwide, though two separate incidents were reported today, one of them a Houthi missile strike which killed two in Saudi Arabia, and the other a Saudi airstrike which killed three Yemenis.
The incidents were a big deal, of course, but the bigger deal was the relative calm elsewhere, with the capital city of Sanaa reporting its first night without airstrikes in nearly three solid months, and hope that it might remain the case for a couple more days.
Secretary of State John Kerry, one of the initial proponents for this ceasefire, was quick to criticize the Houthi missile strike and urge them to respect the ceasefire, though he did not mention the Saudi airstrike at all, and of his meeting with his Saudi counterpart, he only said they would discuss ways to “fix” the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which allows Americans to sue Saudi Arabia over 9/11.
The US has been a partner in the Saudi war in Yemen for the past 18 months, and only recently expressed interest in seeing a ceasefire, amid growing international condemnation of Saudi war crimes and increased concern among State Department officials that the US could be liable as a “co-belligerent.”