DUBAI (Reuters) – Yemeni’s Houthis say US plan for a ceasefire in their six-year war against a Saudi-led military coalition does not go far enough and increase pressure on Riyadh to lift a sea and air blockade before any ceasefire agreement is reached.
With the United Nations warning of an impending large-scale famine, US special envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking toured the region this month to press the warring parties to impose a nationwide ceasefire to end UN-sponsored peace talks to revive the end of the conflict.
But to make it clear to the Houthis that the plan should go ahead, Mohammed Abdulsalam, Houthi’s head coach, told Reuters: ‘We have discussed all these proposals and offered alternatives. We continue to talk. ”
Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015, has been trying to leave the war for more than a year, but wants to be more assured by the armed Houthi movement over the security of its borders and to limit the influence of its rival. , Iran, in Yemen.
Tehran denies arming the Houthi.
An important point is the Houthi’s demand that the coalition lift the blockade – which largely contributed to Yemen’s suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis – before any ceasefire was agreed, three sources involved in the talks said: said.
The Saudi-led coalition controls Yemen’s airspace and waters, including the Houthi-Hodeidah port on the Red Sea, which handles more than 70% of Yemen’s imports. The Houthis own most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.
“The issue is being considered as an existential threat in Saudi Arabia. “Free delivery and daily flights between northern Yemen and Iran will cause anxiety in Riyadh,” said a source familiar with the talks. “This is a case study on how to end a war you did not win.”
Lenderking did not provide details in public about what he called a “good plan”. But Abdulsalam said this included allowing flights to Sanaa airport from some destinations, with prior coalition authorization.
He said the Houthis had agreed to inspect ships bound for Hodeidah and to verify the bank transfers and the origin of goods, but that the coalition said the revenue from ports should go to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. go.
A State Department spokesman said Lenderking had put forward a fair proposal for a nationwide ceasefire, with elements that would immediately address the serious humanitarian situation in Yemen.
“The Houthis must show their willingness to adopt and adhere to a comprehensive, nationwide ceasefire,” the spokesman said.
DEVIL IN DETAILS
The challenge, according to sources and analysts, is to find a middle ground.
“From what I understand, the Saudis are willing to make concessions,” said Peter Salisbury, a senior analyst at International Crisis Group. “But there are a lot of demons in the details that need to be worked out, in terms of what a ceasefire looks like there and what a relief from the restrictions looks like there.”
The stakes are high as the Houthis escalate rocket and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, including oil facilities, and make a profit in an offensive to capture Yemen’s hostile Marib region, the last stronghold of the internationally recognized government that expelled the Houthis. power in Sanaa.
Biden said the United States would no longer support offensive operations by the coalition, while still helping Saudi Arabia defend itself.
“I think the military escalation in Marib and elsewhere shows that Iran wants to indirectly push the US to the nuclear file. I see no other reason for that,” a Saudi official said.
Abdulsalam rejected it.
The spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said this month that Tehran was backing a ceasefire in Yemen “with the lifting of the blockade”.
Biden aims to restore a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran that ended its predecessor Donald Trump in 2018, but Washington and Tehran cannot agree on who should pull first.
The Biden administration has used a root-and-stick approach across Yemen, including lifting terrorist directions on the Houthis imposed by the Trump administration and later sanctioning two of the group’s military leaders.
Lenderking said Washington will work with the Yemeni and Saudi governments to find a way to supply fuel to Yemenis and to restore humanitarian aid to the north.
But time is running out. Fuel shortages have wiped out water pumps, generators in hospitals and disrupted their resources in a country where 80% of the population needs help.
UN special envoy Martin Griffiths said on Tuesday that no fuel imports had been allowed to enter Hodeidah since January.
On March 17, at least 13 fuel tankers – sometimes more than six months old – were detained by coalition warships off Hodeidah, despite having UN approval.
Four ships canceled and departed without being stranded in port after months of waiting.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay in Washington; Edited by Ghaida Ghantous and Timothy Heritage