Yemen Ceasefire Agreed to, Relative Calm Settles In

Tribal Leader Agrees to Truce With Saleh Gone

It still isn’t clear if President Ali Abdullah Saleh is gone for good, but as celebrations erupted in the streets, a comparative calm again settled in to the capital city of Sanaa. The tribal faction led by Sheikh Ahmar has agreed to a ceasefire with the regime, which is now led by Major General Hadi.

There were still reports of fighting in the south, with nine Yemeni soldiers reported killed by unknown gunmen. Secessionist movements remain, and multiple towns are still under the control of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Still, the civil war in and around the capital city seems to be over, or at the very least indefinitely on hold as everyone waits to see what direction post-Saleh Yemen will take, or even if this is post-Saleh Yemen yet.

It is a ceasefire both sides seem more than eager to embrace, and without Saleh antagonizing the tribesmen there seems no obvious catalyst for a new conflict. This may allow the thousands who fled the capital over the past week to return.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.