Yemen’s warring parties agree to ceasefire

RIMBO, Sweden: Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to cease fighting for the Houthiheld port city of Hodeidah and withdraw their troops, the first significant breakthrough for United Nationsled peace efforts in five years of conflict.

At the close of a week of talks in Sweden, UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres said a framework for political negotiations would be discussed at the next round of talks at the end of January between the Iranianaligned Houthis and the Saudibacked government of President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi.

Western nations, some of which supply arms and intelligence to the Saudiled coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015, had pressed the two sides to agree confidencebuilding steps to pave the way for a wider truce and a political process to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people.

The conflict has pushed Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, to the verge of famine for 12 million severely hungry Yemenis.

In Washington, the United States Senate delivered a rare double rebuke to President

ADonald Trump on Saudi Arabia, voting to end US military support for the war in Yemen and blame the Saudi crown prince for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The votes were largely symbolic because to become law the resolutions would have to pass the House of Representatives, whose Republican leaders have blocked any legislation intended to rebuke the Saudis.

Senators voted 5641 to end US military support for the Saudiled coalition in Yemen’s civil war.

It was the first time either chamber of Congress had backed a resolution to withdraw US forces from a military engagement under the War Powers Act. That law, passed in 1973, limits the president’s ability to commit US forces to potential hostilities without congressional approval. Seven of Trump’s fellow Republicans joined Senate Democrats to back the measure.

The Senate then backed a resolution blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Khashoggi’s murder and insisting that Saudi Arabia hold accountable anyone responsible for his death. — Reuters