Warring parties in Yemen could soon sign a deal to renew a ceasefire that would last until the end of 2023, The New Arab reported Thursday.
A ceasefire that took effect in April 2022 expired last October. While there has been an uptick in fighting on the ground, there have still been no Saudi airstrikes in Yemen since March 2022 and no Houthi missile and drone attacks inside Saudi Arabia.
Sources told The New Arab’s Arabic language sister site that the hopes for a new truce come after Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman met with members of the presidential council that represents the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.
A deal to extend the ceasefire could include the Saudis allowing more flights from the Sanaa airport, the resumption of oil exports, and the opening of roads the Houthis have blocked in Taiz. But the sources said some Houthi demands might not be fulfilled.
The Houthis have long called for a complete lifting of the blockade on Yemen as a precondition for a settlement. One of their main demands now is for government employees living in Houthi-controlled areas to be paid their salaries using revenue from Yemeni oil and gas sales.
The UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said last month that he saw renewed momentum for a peace deal in Yemen following the Iran-Saudi normalization deal. While Iran isn’t nearly as involved in the Yemen war as the Saudis are, the renewed engagement between Tehran and Riyadh is expected to bring more stability to the region. Since the rapprochement with Iran, the Saudis have also taken steps toward normalizing with Syria.
March 25 marked the eighth anniversary of the US-backed Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. Since then, at least 377,000 people have been killed in the war. More than half died due to starvation and disease that was caused by the blockade and the coalition’s brutal bombing campaign.
That’s interesting, a few weeks ago Iran and Saudi Arabia renewed diplomatic ties and the Houthis were upset that Iran had agreed not to arm them anymore.
From Al Arabiya English:
“Saudi Arabia’s normalization agreement with Iran will have no impact on the Yemen war because the Houthis are not “subordinate” to Tehran, a spokesman of the Iran-backed militia told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV.
“Saudi Arabia must know that our relationship with Iran is not one of subordination. It is an Islamic brotherly relationship. Resolving the Yemen issue [can only be achieved through negotiations] between Sanaa and Riyadh, and not Tehran and Riyadh,” said member of the Houthis’ political wing Abdulwahab al-Mahbashi.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/saudi-arabia/2023/03/13/Houthis-Saudi-Iran-deal-has-no-impact-on-Yemen-war-we-are-not-subordinate-to-Tehran
Those were some tough words but here we are today…..
Good. Finally, some spillover of peace, probably from the Iran-Saudi deal. Now let’s start negotiating a lasting peace between Russia and the west….
https://thecradle.co/article-view/23394/iran-and-saudi-arabia-a-chinese-win-win
Iran and Saudi Arabia: a Chinese win-win
The single Iranian-Saudi handshake buried trillions of dollars of western divide-and-rule investments across West Asia, and has global leaders rushing to Beijing for global solutions.
By
Pepe Escobar
April 07 2023
It is a first step, By creating a problem between independence minded Houthis (really Zaidi Notth Yemen) and Saudis, US is banking on getting control over Southern independence coalition. US has one goal only — control of governance in the South, as this determines who cintrols Bab Al-Mandeb.
Back in 2015 when US backed war in Yemen started Saudis were ruled by CIA best friend, Mohammed bin Nayaf. He was the man behind ISIS and all Syrian Islamic movements. But after Trump’s decision to fight ISIS, and Russian entry into Syria — Saudis changed their orientation. In June 2017 Mohammed Bin Nayaf was remived from the position of Crown Prince in a court coup. Saudi Allegiance Council aporoved MBS to the position. King then ked a 2000 strong delegatikn to Moscow. Since, Russia and China consolidated relationship with Iran, and reading handwriting in the wall, Saudis turned East in both economy and foreign policy. Soon I suspect itvwill be in security as well.
This dies not portend well for US, Should Saudis consolidate relationship with Sana’a it will be onlyva matter of time for southern sultanited to swivel to Saudi suppirt. UAE that previously played a spoiler and assisted US in the south -/ just opened Iranian embassy.
God, wouldn’t it be awful if peace broke out around the planet. What ever would Obama BidBlinken do???