Civil War In Yemen: Approaching Peace

Yemen has seen a glimmer of hope for peace and stability following the announcement of the successful conclusion of top-secret five-day talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels, one of the warring sides in Yemen’s nearly decade-long bloody war.

Official Saudi sources and Al-Masirah TV, controlled by Yemen’s Iran-backed government based in Sanaa, simultaneously said the talks were “serious and positive.” The talks were mediated by a representative of the Omani government, who aims to facilitate negotiations between the parties. The situation is so sensitive that neither the Yemeni government in Sanaa nor the Saudi authorities were willing to go into detail about the topics discussed during the meetings for the first time since Yemen’s bloody civil war took on international dimensions.

The bloody conflict in Yemen has been going on since 2014 between the Houthi rebels, an armed group that emerged from the Shiite-majority north of the country and backed by Tehran, and the central government. The situation in the armed conflict was further aggravated by the emergence – after the so-called “Arab Spring” – of jihadist groups associated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

According to the latest available data, in March 2022, the Yemen Center for Human Rights estimated the number of victims of the conflict at 46,262. 590,069 houses, 1,612 mosques, 410 hospitals, and 1,214 schools were destroyed.

A fragile truce reached early last year and expired in October 2022 gave the Houthi rebels a free hand, and they immediately stepped up their attacks with missiles and kamikaze drones against the infrastructure in Yemen and Riyadh, but primarily against the Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

International observers emphasized that “this is the first time that the Houthi rebel group has been invited to negotiations in Riyadh.” This means that the Saudi Kingdom is working very seriously to find a way out of the civil conflict in Yemen.