Pressure from West forces Yemeni foes into talks in fight against IS

DUBAI: Alarmed by the rise of Islamic State (IS), under pressure from the West and with a stalemate on the battlefield, Yemen’s civil war foes are expected to launch their most serious peace efforts so far at UN-mediated talks in Geneva starting today.

The nine-month-old conflict between a Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iranianallied Houthis has outlasted two earlier UN attempts at peace making, caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and pushed Yemen towards total chaos.

Fuelling the urgency behind today’s talks is a perception in the West that the war, in part a proxy contest between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, is a dangerous distraction diverting regional attention from what should be the pre-eminent task of fighting IS on its home turf and ending Syria’s larger war.

“There is an opportunity now more than at any of the previous talks and negotiations to stop this war… to confront terrorism and challenges,” a spokesman for the Saudis’ adversary, the Houthi militia group, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, said.

According to officials in the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Western countries are keen to avoid a power vacuum that could give jihadist militants the haven they now enjoy in the southern port of Aden and other lawless areas.

The newest branch of IS has exploited the chaos to launch spectacular attacks in Yemen on both the Shia mosques of the Houthis and senior officials and troops loyal to the government.

“In recent weeks, Washington and London have exerted intense pressure on President Hadi and the government side to make concessions and not to be extreme in terms of executing the security council resolution,” one senior Yemeni government official said.

The official was referring to a UN Security Council Resolution in April that called on the Houthis to quit the capital, Sana’a, and other cities they had seized since late last year.

“There’s an international inclination toward preserving the Houthis and allowing them to continue having an active political role, especially in terms of… confronting terrorism,” the official said.

Unstable ever since a 2011 revolt toppled veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen finally plunged into civil war last year when the ex-leader joined forces with the Houthis to seize power, triggering a Gulf Arab military intervention.

Neither side has prevailed militarily and in the wake of a rash of attacks claimed by IS, the US has increased calls for the Gulf to divert their diplomatic and military attention away from Yemen back toward the militants’ main base in Syria and Iraq.

“Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states joined the air campaign in the early days, but have since been pre-occupied by the conflict in Yemen,” US Defence Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate armed services committee this month.

Yemeni analyst Farea al-Muslimi said officials on both sides were cautiously optimistic about Geneva, amid unprecedented diplomatic pressure for peace, but hopes were not high of quick progress.

“Expectations are low in terms of finding a way for the Yemeni state to be put back together and finding an authority that could run the country.

“A longer-lasting ceasefire, the removal of the Saudi-led blockade on Yemeni ports and even a rough framework to keep the talks going is about as much as can be hoped for right now.”

The UN says at least 5 800 people, nearly half of them civilians, have been killed since Saudi-led air strikes began in March against the Houthis, who say they are conducting a revolution against what they call Hadi’s corruption.

More than 21 million people in Yemen require some kind of humanitarian assistance to survive – about 80 percent of the population. – Reuters, DPA

EXPECTATIONS ARE LOW… OF FINDING A WAY FOR THE YEMENI STATE TO BE PUT BACK TOGETHER AND FINDING AN AUTHORITY TO RUN THE COUNTRY