Saudis announce ceasefire offer to Houthi rebels
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia on Monday offered a ceasefire proposal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels that includes reopening their country’s main airport, the kingdom’s latest attempt to halt years of fighting in a war that has sparked 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 comes as Riyadh tries to rehabilitate its image with the U.S. under President Biden. Saudi Arabia has drawn international criticism for air strikes killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger in a nation on the brink of famine.
Whether the plan will take hold remains another question. A unilaterally declared Saudi ceasefire collapsed last year. Fighting rages around the crucial city of Marib and the Saudiled coalition launched air strikes as recently as Sunday targeting Yemen’s capital of Sanaa. A U.N. mission said another suspected air strike hit a foodproduction company in the port city of Hodeida.
“We want the guns to fall completely silent,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said at a televised news conference in Riyadh. “It is up to the Houthis now. We are ready to go today. We hope we can have a ceasefire immediately, but the onus is on the Houthis.”
A senior Houthi official, who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the rebels had been aware of the proposal and in direct communication with the Saudis, as well as interlocutors from Oman. However, he said the Saudis needed to do more to see a ceasefire implemented, something reiterated by others in the Iranianbacked rebel group.
Saudi Arabia said the plan would be presented both to the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government. Both would need to accept the plan for it to move forward, with any timeline likely to be set by U.N. Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.
U.N. SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres welcomed the announcement, said U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
The Saudiled coalition entered Yemen’s war in March 2015 as the Houthis threatened to take Yemen’s port city of Aden and completely overrun the country’s internationally recognized government. Six years later, the fighting rages on. The war has killed some 130,000 people, including over 13,000 civilians slain in targeted attacks, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Project.