RIYADH — Talks on Yemen’s devastating war started in
the Saudi capital Wednesday, but without the Houthi rebels, hours after the
Riyadh-led coalition announced a ceasefire for the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
اضافة اعلان
The week-long discussions in the Saudi
capital are hosted by the six-nation GCC headquartered there and include UN
envoy Hans Grundberg and Washington’s Tim Lenderking.
The talks come after the Saudi-led coalition
backing the Yemeni government said it would cease military operations during
Ramadan, which starts when the crescent moon is spotted on Friday or Saturday.
The Iran-backed Houthis — who rejected
joining talks held on the territory of its enemy — days ago also made a
surprise offer of a truce and of a prisoner swap. The ceasefire, the first
since April 2020 in Yemen, has been respected so far.
The recent flurry of statements brings a
glimmer of hope in a brutal war that has killed hundreds of thousands and left
millions on the brink of famine in Yemen, long the Arab world’s poorest
country.
“The success of Yemeni consultations is not
an option but a reality that must be reached,” said GCC Secretary-General Nayef
Al-Hajraf in opening remarks.
‘Sense
of urgency’
Both
the UN and US envoys welcomed the GCC initiative and praised the warring sides’
pledges to temporarily cease hostilities.
Lenderking said the US supports UN efforts to
advance a “durable, inclusive resolution” and backs its truce proposal “as a
first step towards a comprehensive ceasefire and a new, more inclusive,
political process”.
Grundberg said he continues to engage “with
the parties with a sense of urgency to reach this truce by the beginning of
Ramadan.”
On Tuesday night, the coalition announced a
“cessation of military operations in Yemen beginning at 6am (3am GMT)
Wednesday”.
This, it said, “coincides with the launch of
Yemeni-Yemeni consultations with the aim of creating the appropriate conditions
for their success and creating a positive environment during the holy month of
Ramadan for peacemaking in Yemen”.
The rebels had on Saturday called a three-day
truce and offered peace talks, but only on condition the Saudis end their
blockade and air strikes and remove coalition forces from Yemen.
A day later they said a prisoner swap was
agreed that would free 1,400 of their fighters in exchange for 823
pro-government personnel — including 16 Saudis and three Sudanese.
The last prisoner swap in Yemen’s war was in
October 2020, when 1,056 were released on each side, according to the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
Yemen’s devastated economy and its complex
political situation as well as military matters and humanitarian aid are all on
the table at the talks in Riyadh, even as possible outcomes remain unclear.
“It is not clear where the Riyadh
consultations will lead,” said Maged Al-Madhaji, director of the Sanaa Centre
for Strategic Studies.
“The meeting’s agenda is still very general,
and the discussions will be limited to one party and will not include the
Houthis.
“With regard to the peace track, it will not
lead to anything because the Houthis are not there.”
An
‘absent party’
In the
Houthis’ view, the meeting “has nothing to do with the issue of peace”, Ahmed
Al-Emad, a spokesman of the rebels’ foreign ministry, told AFP.
With the rebels absent, the talks “are
missing an important part of the equation”, a Riyadh-based Arab diplomat told
AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to the diplomat, the talks are “an
attempt to unite all the forces within the pro Saudi-led coalition camp against
the absent party”.
The view was shared by Ahmed Nagi of the
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
“The main goal of these consultations is to
arrange the anti-Houthi side so that there is a shared position and some
clarity of vision,” he told AFP.
“These talks do not aim to reach a settlement
with the Houthis as much as they aim to rearrange the pro-Saudi coalition
side.”
Yemen’s 30 million people are in dire need of
assistance. A UN donors conference this month raised less than a third of the
$4.27 billion target, prompting dark warnings for a country where 80 percent of
the population depend on aid.
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