More ceasefire deal: Yemen makes new bid for peace

And the Armistice Agreement
Yemen has made a new bid for peace

December 23, 2023, 9:03 pm

Listen to the article

The Houthis, largely overlooked by the international community, have been fighting government forces in Yemen for years. Although the intensity of the fighting has subsided, the humanitarian situation remains dire. Now there must be a new UN-mediated peace process.

In Yemen's more than nine-year-old conflict, warring parties have pledged a renewed ceasefire and agreed to open a new peace process, according to the United Nations. He welcomes the conflict's commitment to these measures, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said after a series of talks with negotiators in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Peace talks should therefore be held under the auspices of the UN as part of a “comprehensive political process”.

According to the United Nations, the deal reached now includes paying civil servants, reopening several roads, including the main city of Taiz, where the Houthis are fighting against the Yemeni government, and resuming oil exports. Yemeni citizens expect “solid progress towards sustainable peace” from the new deal, Grundberg explained.

The conflict and its aftermath in the impoverished country on the Arabian Peninsula is one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. The Shiite Houthis have been engaged in a civil war with the internationally recognized Yemeni government for years and have controlled Yemen's capital Sanaa since 2014. In March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition began to intervene on behalf of government forces. However, the coalition failed to defeat the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

Since the war between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas began eleven weeks ago, the Houthis have drawn global attention for a series of attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. According to the US Department of Defense, they carried out 100 drone and missile attacks on merchant ships. The Houthis consider themselves part of the “resistance axis” against Israel.

In the Yemen conflict, the intensity of fighting has eased since a UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022. It expired in October 2022, but is still largely adhered to.