DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Saudi Arabia on Monday offered a ceasefire proposal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels that includes reopening its country’s main airport, the kingdom’s latest attempt to halt years of fighting. in a war that spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The move comes after the rebels stepped up a campaign of drone and missile attacks on the kingdom’s oil sites, briefly shaking global energy prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. It also happens when Riyadh tries to rehabilitate its image with the United States under President Joe Biden. Saudi Arabia has drawn international criticism for air strikes that have killed civilians and embargoes that have exacerbated hunger in a country on the brink of famine.
Whether the plan is going to work is another matter. A unilaterally declared Saudi ceasefire collapsed last year. The fight is fought around the important city of Marib and the Saudi-led coalition recently launched air strikes on Sunday, targeting Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. A UN mission said another suspicious air strike hit a food production company in the port city of Hodeida.
“We want the weapons to be completely silent,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters at a televised news conference in Riyadh. “Now it’s up to the Houthis. We are ready to leave today. We hope to achieve a ceasefire immediately, but the responsibility lies with the Houthis. “
A senior Houthi official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity under regulations, said the rebels were aware of the proposal and in direct communication with the Saudis, as well as Oman’s interlocutors. However, he said the Saudis needed to do more for a ceasefire to be implemented, something reiterated by other members of the Iran-backed rebel group.
Saudi Arabia said the plan will be presented to the Houthis and the internationally recognized Yemeni government on Monday. Both would have to accept the plan to move forward, with any timetable likely set by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the announcement, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
“There is no doubt that every effort must be made to end the conflict and suffering of the Yemeni people, and the United Nations hopes to continue its work with the parties to achieve this goal,” said Haq.
He said Griffiths “has been working extensively with the parties to see what can be done to bring them together in the kind of proposals he made on the Security Council. … Then he will contact the Houthis, as with all parties, to see if we can go further. “
Saudi Arabia made two concessions to the Houthis in the plan, although it did not offer everything the rebels had previously wanted. The first involves the reopening of Sanaa International Airport, a vital link from Yemen to the outside world that has not had regular commercial flights since 2015. The authorities did not immediately identify which trade routes they wanted to see resumed.
The second would see taxes, customs and other taxes generated by the port of Hodeida during the import of oil placed in a joint account with the Central Bank of Yemen. That account would be accessible to the Houthis and the recognized Yemeni government to pay civil servants and finance other programs, officials said.
The Saudi government and the Yemeni government he supports have accused the Houthis of stealing these funds in the past. A report this year by a panel of UN experts said the Houthis “diverted” about $ 200 million from that fund.
“Only a small part of the funds was used to pay salaries,” said the report.
Whether the Houthis accept the Saudi proposal remains in doubt. On Friday, Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi proposed a nationwide ceasefire for Saudi Arabia to reopen Sanaa airport for commercial flights and lift restrictions on cargo shipments to Hodeida. The port handles most of the country’s vital imports. Both are long-standing claims of the Houthis, who invaded Sanaa from their fortresses in the northwest in September 2014.
“There is nothing new about the Saudi initiative,” another Houthi official told the AP, on condition of anonymity, according to regulations. “First, the airport and the port must be opened.”
Prince Faisal criticized the Houthis for making “just more and more demands”.
“Houthis must decide whether to put their interests first or … Iran’s interests first,” said the prince.
The Saudi-led coalition entered the Yemen war in March 2015, when the Houthis threatened to take Yemen’s port city of Aden and completely invade the country’s internationally recognized government. The Saudis promised that the offensive – the idea of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – would end soon.
Six years later, the struggle continues. The war killed about 130,000 people, including more than 13,000 civilians killed in targeted attacks, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Project. Tens of thousands of children died of hunger and disease. The conflict also turned into a regional conflict, with the Saudis using weapons made in the United States and Iran linked to weapons used by the Houthis. to reach the kingdom.
Last week, Griffiths warned that “the war has returned with full force”. Hundreds of fighters were killed in the offensive in Marib, while other front lines that had fallen asleep saw fresh fighting. Saudi television channels repeatedly show black and white images of drones with dramatic music of bombs falling on alleged Houthi targets.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government praised the Saudi initiative as an effort to “alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people”. But in a statement, his Foreign Ministry also warned that Houthis “faced all previous initiatives with obstinacy and procrastination” and “worked to deepen the humanitarian crisis”.
Since Biden took office, his government has reversed former President Donald Trump’s decision to name the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, allowing U.S. aid to flow into rebel-controlled territory. He also ended US support for the Saudis in the war.
Biden sent the US envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, to the region to negotiate a political settlement. Lenderking said earlier this month that the Houthis had an unspecified ceasefire proposal for a “number of days”, without giving further details. He reportedly met with Houthi officials during a trip to Oman in February, something the State Department refused to acknowledge.
In a note, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken to Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister about the war.
Blinken supports efforts “to end the conflict in Yemen, starting with the need for all parties to commit to a ceasefire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid,” the statement said.
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Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.