The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported on Monday that Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman’s visit to Tehran was meant to secure a ceasefire with Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, as part of a deal that would involve Riyadh transferring $1 billion to the Yemeni group to fulfill a 2023 roadmap for peace that was never implemented.
Under the 2023 deal, the first phase would have involved salary payments to civil workers living in Ansar Allah-controlled Yemen, where most Yemenis live. But US sanctions imposed on Ansar Allah in 2024, specifically the re-designation of the group as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” blocked the payments as part of punishment from the Biden administration over Yemeni attacks on Israeli-linked shipping, a response to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
One source speaking to Israel Hayom said Salman brought $1 billion in cash to Iran, but the report didn’t specify whether the money changed hands. A Saudi official didn’t confirm the transfer but said much of the conflict stems from the failure to implement the 2023 agreement.
For their part, now that they have significant momentum on the ground, Ansar Allah is demanding an immediate lifting of the Saudi blockade for a ceasefire. Hamid Asim, a member of Sanaa’s negotiating delegation, told The Cradle earlier this month that Ansar Allah wants “an end to the aggression, the lifting of the blockade, payment of compensation, the release of prisoners, and the withdrawal of forces occupying parts of the country.” Asim said the 2023 understanding could form the basis for a settlement, as long as it accounts for the new realities on the ground.
Since Riyadh reignited the war by bombing the Sanaa International Airport in July, Ansar Allah has pounded Saudi oil sites and airports and has taken a significant amount of territory from Saudi-backed forces, while Saudi Arabia has escalated its bombing campaign in the country with little to show for it besides an increasing number of civilian casualties.
The National also reported on the talks in Tehran and cited sources who said that the Saudi, Turkish, and Pakistani officials urged Tehran to ask Ansar Allah to halt its attacks on the kingdom. The report said that Iran responded by saying it lacked the leverage over Ansar Allah to compel them to stop the attacks but relayed Ansar Allah’s condition for an end to the Saudi blockade.
