A photo taken on March 18, 2018 shows a Yemeni child looking at buildings that were damaged in an air strike in the southern city of Taez.
AHMAD AL-BASHA | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia proposed a new peace initiative on Monday that would start the end of the war in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said on Monday that the plan would include a nationwide ceasefire, the reopening of Sanaa airport and allow the import of fuel and food through the port of Hodeidah.
Civil war in Yemen escalated in 2014 when Houthi forces, in alliance with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took control of the country’s capital.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have carried out attacks in Yemen against the Houthis. Former President Donald Trump’s government supported the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.
Trump vetoed a measure in 2019 with the aim of ending U.S. military assistance and involvement in Yemen. At the time, Trump said the Congressional resolution was “unnecessary” and that it put “the lives of American citizens and brave military men at risk, both today and in the future”.
Lawmakers who supported the measure criticized Saudi Arabia for a series of bombing campaigns that have caused thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen.
Last month, President Joe Biden announced the suspension of US support for offensive operations in Yemen and appointed a new envoy to oversee the country’s diplomatic mission to end the civil war in that country.
“This war must end,” said Biden during his first speech on foreign policy as president. “We are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including the sale of relevant weapons.”
“At the same time, Saudi Arabia faces missile and UAV attacks and other threats from Iran-supplied forces in several countries,” said Biden. “We will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity and that of its people.”
The president hired Tim Lenderking, deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran, Iraq and regional multilateral affairs, to oversee the U.S. diplomatic mission to end the war in Yemen.
Biden’s policy of ending support for offensive operations will not extend to military actions taken by the United States against an al-Qaeda branch in the region, known as AQAP.
Biden also suspended sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia in order to assess possible human rights abuses.
The United Nations had previously said that the ongoing armed conflict in Yemen produced the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world. The United States provided more than $ 630 million in humanitarian assistance to Yemen in fiscal year 2020, according to data provided by the State Department.