(Sanaa) A Saudi delegation traveled to Yemen’s capital on Sunday to broker a new truce with Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control the city as Saudi Arabia seeks a way out of the war .
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, was received by the rebels’ political leader, Mehdi Machat, according to Houthi media, Saba news agency and Al-Massira TV channel. The latter broadcast images showing the two men shaking hands.
The Saudi negotiators came “to discuss ways to move forward towards the establishment of peace”, two Yemeni diplomats working in the Gulf told AFP and requested anonymity.
Contacted by AFP, the Saudi authorities declined to comment on this information.
Like entire swaths of Yemeni territory, Sanaa has been under the control of the Houthis, a movement close to Iran, for more than eight years. The military coalition led by neighboring Saudi Arabia since 2015 in support of pro-government forces has failed to dislodge the insurgents.
Saudi officials have visited Sanaa in the past, but visits are rare and often limited. But while Sunni Saudi Arabia has been trying for several months to extricate itself from this quagmire, the recent rapprochement with its great regional rival, Shia Iran, has fueled hopes for an appeasement in the Middle East, in particular in the Yemen.
The poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula is suffering one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The eight-year war has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced, with colossal challenges like epidemics, acute hunger and economic collapse, amid declining international aid.
PHOTO ESSA AHMED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
A Yemeni woman displaced by war in Yemen’s Hajjah province
” Priority ”
“Making progress in Yemen has always been a priority for the Saudis but, without the Iranians, things would not go as fast as we see today,” Saudi analyst Hesham Alghannam told AFP. .
“In the past, discussions with (the Houthis) have not been very fruitful, to say the least,” noted the Riyadh-based academic.
Arrived on Saturday, Omani mediators are also in Sanaa to allow the signing of an agreement on a lasting truce.
A truce was agreed a year ago in Yemen and has since been largely held, but was not formally renewed when it expired last October.
A new truce under discussion includes demands long imposed by the rebels, Yemeni government sources told AFP.
The first is the lifting of the air and sea blockade maintained by the Saudi army on the country, preventing airports and ports under rebel control from operating without Riyadh’s approval.
Another requirement: the payment by the government, which holds most of the energy wealth, of the salaries of all civil servants, including those working in regions held by the Houthis.
“Tired”
Despite fears that an agreement between Saudis and rebels will not necessarily mean the end of the civil war in Yemen, many on the streets of Sanaa want to keep hope for a soon peace.
“We want the war to end. We are tired,” Ali Hussein, a 23-year-old resident of the capital, told AFP.
Mahammed Dahmash, another 35-year-old resident, also expressed hope “for an agreement more than a truce that would completely end the war”.
The same glimmer of hope in Hodeida, a large western port region. Like many civil servants in Houthi-controlled areas, Mansour has not received a salary for seven years.
“War is not only rockets and missiles, but also our economic situation which has deteriorated,” the 46-year-old teacher told AFP, refusing to divulge his surname.
Imane Mohammed, another resident of Hodeida interviewed by AFP, hopes that by the Eid holiday, which punctuates the current month of Muslim fasting, “the situation will calm down and return to normal”.
The conflict in Yemen in brief
PHOTO HANI MOHAMMED, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters of the Houthi rebels protesting against the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen
Yemen has been devastated by war since 2014.
The conflict between the Houthis, rebels close to Iran, and pro-government forces, supported by a military coalition led by neighboring Saudi Arabia, has left hundreds of thousands dead – direct or indirect victims – and millions displaced .
Sanaa in the hands of the Houthis
In July 2014, the Houthis, considering themselves marginalized, launched an offensive from their stronghold of Saada (north). They come from Zaidism, a branch of the majority Shiism in the North and which represents more than 30% of the population of Yemen with a Sunni majority.
Joining forces with units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdallah Saleh, they entered the capital Sanaa in September and seized the seat of government.
They take the port city of Hodeida (west) on the Red Sea, then progress towards the center of the country.
In January 2015, they seized the presidential palace in Sanaa and surrounded the residence of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Aden (south).
military coalition
On March 26, 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, including the United Arab Emirates, launched an air operation to block the advance of the rebels. Washington provides logistical and intelligence support.
Mr. Hadi takes refuge in Saudi Arabia as the rebels approach Aden.
In July, the government announced the “liberation” of the province of Aden, the first success of the loyalists. The city of the same name becomes the “provisional” capital of power.
Southern Separatists
In early 2018, separatists from the South, an independent territory before its merger with the North in 1990, turned against government forces in Aden and besieged the presidential palace, before a Saudi-Emirati intervention.
In August 2019, clashes in Aden pitted separatists from the “Security Cord” force, trained by the Emirates, against government troops, supported by Riyadh.
Riyadh has since brokered a power-sharing deal and overseen the formation of a government.
Arabia targeted
On September 14, 2019, the rebels claimed responsibility for attacks against two sites of the oil giant Aramco in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil. Riyadh and Washington accuse Iran, which denies it.
The Houthis are stepping up attacks with drones and missiles against the Saudi kingdom. In March 2021, Saudi oil facilities are the target of two major attacks.
Offensive on Marib
After months of calm, the rebels resumed their offensive in February 2021 on Marib, a strategic city in an oil-rich region and the last loyalist stronghold in the North.
The offensive comes as the US administration of Joe Biden removed the Houthis from its list of “terrorist organizations”.
Six months of truce
On January 17, 2022, the Houthis attack facilities in Abu Dhabi, killing three.
On the 25th, the rebels carried out new attacks in Saudi Arabia, causing a gigantic fire in an oil site in Jeddah.
A UN-brokered truce comes into effect on April 2, 2022. It expires six months later, on October 2, but the situation remains relatively calm on the ground.
Iran-Arabia rapprochement
On March 10, 2023, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed, under the aegis of China, to resume their diplomatic relations and to reopen their embassies by mid-May.
On the 19th, Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi received an invitation from King Salman to go to Riyadh and seal the rapprochement between the two countries. The trip is planned after Ramadan, at the end of April.
On April 8, Omani mediators arrive in Sanaa to discuss with Houthi rebels a truce in Yemen with Saudi Arabia.
On April 9, a Saudi delegation arrives in Sanaa to negotiate a lasting truce and discuss the peace process with the Houthi rebels.