RIYADH — Yemen’s new leaders are “ready for
war” should the latest push for peace with Houthi rebels fail, but a senior
official told AFP they genuinely want the years-long conflict to end soon.
اضافة اعلان
“Our first option is peace, but we are ready for
war,” Abdullah Al-Alimi said late Saturday in his first interview since being
named to an eight-member leadership council tasked with running the country
after President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi stepped down earlier this month.
“We believe the council is in a position, with the
coalition support, to score a decisive military victory,” Alimi told AFP in the
Saudi capital.
Hadi’s internationally recognized government had
been locked in conflict for seven years against the Iran-backed Houthis, who
control the capital Sanaa and most of the north despite a Saudi-led coalition’s
military intervention launched in 2015.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or
indirectly, and triggered what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian
crisis, with millions on the brink of famine.
Hadi’s April 7 announcement handing power to the
council came at the end of talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh that brought
together anti-Houthi factions but were boycotted by the Houthis themselves.
The developments followed the start of a renewable
two-month truce that has brought a rare respite from violence and spurred
cautious hopes the war could finally end.
Hadi said the council would be tasked with
“negotiating with the Houthis for a permanent ceasefire”.
“We hope the dire situation in Yemen will make
people have a desire to leave personal and partisan interests behind in pursuit
of peace,” said Alimi, formerly Hadi’s chief of staff.
He said council leaders are due to meet in the
coming days with UN special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg, who last week
visited Sanaa for the first time during his mandate and held talks with Houthi
leaders.
After meeting Grundberg, the council will travel to
Yemen to be sworn in, though Alimi refused to specify exactly where.
The new council has not yet decided how long it will
give the Houthis to join talks, Alimi said.
Rebel resistance
The Houthis refused to
participate in the negotiations in Riyadh, which they consider enemy territory,
but Alimi said future talks could take place in a more neutral location such as
Oman.
So far, however, the Houthis have been dismissive,
denouncing the new council as “a desperate attempt to rearrange the ranks of
the mercenaries” fighting in Yemen.
Analysts note the Houthis have said peace will only
come once foreign forces leave and some believe they are only really interested
in talks with the Saudis.
“The Houthis don’t see themselves in a conflict with
Yemenis. The Houthis see themselves in a conflict with Saudi Arabia,” said
Fatima Abo Alasrar of the Middle East Institute in Washington.
If the push for peace goes nowhere, the
newly-aligned anti-Houthi forces are positioned to pursue “a concerted
multifront campaign” against the rebels, provided the council’s diverse
membership can hold together, said Peter Salisbury, senior Yemen analyst for
the International Crisis Group.
“They (the leadership council) have the potential to more
aggressively pursue peace and more aggressively pursue war, and the most likely
outcome is they do a little bit of one and a little bit of the other,” he said.
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