Progress has been made in the Yemeni peace talks being held in Sweden, and while there is growing doubt that there will be time to finalize every issue, some new deals were finalized on Wednesday.
The biggest aspect of this deal will be the reopening of the Sanaa International Airport, albeit only to domestic flights. Under the deal, all international flights to Houthi-held Sanaa have to stop in the Saudi-dominated city of Aden for a security check.
This was the deal pro-Saudi factions had before, but with an important difference. They’d wanted the rights to unconditionally search all Sanaa-bound flights, but now the UN will be conducting any security-related searches.
Somewhat less important, there has been a deal to resume oil and gas exports from Yemen, which would bring in some badly needed money for the central bank. Yemen is, however, a fairly small exporter even in the best of times, so this isn’t exactly going to bring much relief to their failing economy.
Ah, yes, missed the oil and gas angle. Maybe not somewhat less important; Yemen may have a lot more than officially recognized.
The U.S. military machine especially needs low gas prices. Also, Trump was crowing over Macron about the Yellow Vest revolt over slightly higher gas prices.
Kind of unusual for oil to possibly be a factor in ending a war for once.
It’s not a matter of “warring parties” but an issue of massacres vs. victims. It’s the same false narrative of so-called “wars” in Gaza where the big gorilla goes in and wipes out civilians just like the Germans wiped out the Warsaw Ghetto.