U.S. pushes for cease-fire, start of talks over Yemen
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is calling for a halt to the Saudi-Iran proxy war in Yemen and the start of negotiations in November toward a political settlement of a conflict that has pushed millions to the brink of starvation in the Arab world’s poorest country.
The renewed push for a political solution in Yemen comes amid growing criticism of U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia’s Yemen air campaign and American arms sales to the Saudis, in the aftermath of the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi Consulate in Turkey.
As the administration weighed responses to the Khashoggi case, lawmakers stepped up demands for responses to the murder and to the crisis in Yemen.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged a cease-fire, specifically citing both missile and drone strikes into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by Iranbacked Houthis and the airstrikes in populated areas of Yemen by the U.S.-backed Arab coalition.
“The time is now for a cessation of hostilities,” Pompeo said in a written statement late Tuesday shortly after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made similar statements in an appearance at the United States Institute of Peace. The secretary of state urged the implementation of “confidence-building measures” to address the underlying issues of the conflict.
Mattis was more specific than Pompeo in his call for urgent movement toward a political solution to the fighting, under peace talks being urged by U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths.
Mattis said a cease-fire A Yemeni child with a diphtheria infection receives treatment Wednesday at a hospital in the capital, Sanaa. Pompeo Mattis should take effect within 30 days.
“We’re calling on all the parties, specifically the Houthis and the Arab coalition, to meet in Sweden in November and to come to a solution,” Mattis said.
Sweden’s foreign minister said Wednesday that Griffiths has asked Sweden to host such talks.
Griffiths on Wednesday welcomed the U.S. calls for immediate resumption of the political process and said the United Nations remains committed “to bring the Yemeni parties to the negotiations table within a month.”
Mattis called for demilitarization of Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia “so that the Saudis and the Emirates do not have to worry about missiles coming into their homes and cities and airports.” He also said measures should be taken to “ensure that all Iraniansupplied missiles to the Houthis” are put under “in- ternational watch.”
“This has got to end. We’ve got to replace combat with compromise,” Mattis said.
Meanwhile, a group of five Republican senators cited the situation in Yemen as well as the Khashoggi killing as reasons for calling on the administration to halt ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia on a civilian nuclear energy agreement.
The administration’s new push for peace comes amid mounting fears of a fresh Arab coalition assault on the Red Sea port of Hodeida, a city that has been the lifeline for international aid deliveries to Yemen. The city’s port is helping keep millions of starving Yemenis alive by serving as the entry point for 70 percent of food imports and international aid.
“People in Yemen face two horrifying menaces: war and hunger,” the International Committee for the Red Cross said in a statement.
The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by . the Houthis, who toppled the internationally recognized government. The Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.