Saudis, Omanis talk peace with Yemen rebels

CAIRO — Saudi officials were in Yemen’s capital Sunday for talks with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, as part of international efforts to find a settlement to Yemen’s nine-year conflict, officials said.

Saudi Arabia’s delegation, chaired by the kingdom’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed

bin Saeed Al-Jaber, met with Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi’s supreme political council, which runs rebel-held areas in Yemen, according to the Houthi-run SABA news agency.

An Omani delegation, which arrived in Sanaa on Saturday, joined the talks, the agency reported. It said al-Mashat hailed Oman’s efforts to bridge the gap between different sides in the war to achieve peace in Yemen. SABA did not give further details.

Mohammed al-Bukaiti, a Houthi leader, said earlier on Twitter that Saudi and Omani officials would discuss “ways to achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace in the region.”

He said achieving an honorable peace between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia would be “a triumph for both parties,” and urged all sides to take steps to “preserve a peaceful atmosphere and prepare to turn the page of the past.”

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on the trip, the second of its kind in 2023, according to a Saudi official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief reporters.

In comments to The Associated Press, Hans Grundberg, the U.N. envoy for Yemen, described the ongoing efforts, including the Saudi and Omani talks in Sanaa, as “the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace” since the war began.

“This is a moment to be seized and built on and a real opportunity to start an inclusive political process under U.N. auspices to sustainably end the conflict,” he said.

The talks in Sanaa are part of international efforts led by Oman to settle Yemen’s conflict, which began in 2014. That’s when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of the country’s north, ousting the internationally recognized government that fled to the south and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi move prompted a Saudi-led coalition to intervene months later in a bid to restore the internationally recognized government to power. The conflict has in recent years turned into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis reached a draft deal last month to revive a cease-fire that expired in October. The deal is meant to usher in a return to Yemeni political talks, according to Saudi and Yemeni officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

They said the Saudi-Houthi understandings include a sixmonth truce with a cessation of all military activities across Yemen. The Houthis have committed to coming to the table with other Yemeni parties to negotiate a political settlement to the conflict, they said. The United Nations is meant to facilitate the political negotiations, they added.