Yemen peace talks are scheduled to start as early as Wednesday of this week, and unlike previous efforts there is reason to believe that everyone will attend and engage in at least some earnest discussion of ending the conflict.
The Houthi delegation is en route now, with UN special envoy Martin Griffiths having already arrived in Sanaa to escort them personally. This is an improvement over last time, when the Houthis couldn’t get guarantees of safe travel, and thus were never able to leave the country for the talks.
The Houthis also got a demand met in the process, as a number of wounded Houthis were able to be evacuated this week into Oman, where they will be able to receive treatment in hospitals that haven’t been constantly bombed by Saudi warplanes.
The Houthis will be traveling by plane to Sweden with Griffiths, and the plane was provided by Kuwait. Diplomats said this was a great confidence-building measure.
Talks are expected to focus on aid shipments, large-scale prisoner swaps, and potentially reopening the Sanaa airport, which has been closed by repeated Saudi airstrikes. All this would also lay the groundwork for negotiating a settlement of the war itself.
Past efforts have stalled quickly on settling the war. Though the Houthis have expressed openness to elections, the Saudi-backed Hadi government has rejected any power-sharing deal, and even though President Hadi’s term in office ended years ago, they insist he be put back in power.
Such is the low bar of electoral legitimacy for the US and Saudi coalition: the only candidate allowed to run, whose term expired, must be reinstalled as “the internationally-recognized government of Yemen”, and new elections aren’t necessary now or ever.
Of course, it is absurdity. But others are taking notice. Why would then anyone in earth be forced to implement Western model of governance, hold elections, have institutions that support and enforce laws. What is the point in demonizing others for autoritarian rule, or dictatorship, absolute monarchies, tribal federations, theocracies.. in this world we approve of every kind of violence in seizure of power, provided that they are under our control. Kosovo mafia state, Ukrainian Nazi takeover, Libyan anarchy, every Gulf absolute monarchy, Central American and South American dictatorship, Israel’s ethnocracy, Baltic states Nazi-flavored ethnocracy, and on it goes. And in the name of short sighted and immensely short- termi perceived gains, the world will become a more dangerous place — as any norms and standards are only for suckers. We cannot with straight face talk human rights and democracy. And this Yemen peace elisode will not last long. The nice people getting the airline, or providing company — all just want something. From nice UN bureacracy to EU bureacracy— they all answer only to their own countries oligarchies. The globe needs new leadership, to establish a new and more just world order. Which will not be easy, as the scum of the earth is swimming to the surface — not expected to be punished for as long as they follow the Kosovo mafia principles of statecraft. Buti in the end, such opportunistic regimes run out of plunder at home, and their patronsrun out of money as well.
No production, no inventions, no scjence. Just bankers propping the show, and corporations swmming in profit, buying back their shares, even borrowing money to buy more. Hoping for the best. Who cares about some elections in Yemen.
Saudis may look like acting irrationally — but it will be interesting to see if US is willing to declare that Hadi is not internationally recognized president.