Yemen’s warring parties have committed to a new ceasefire and agreed to engage in a UN-led peace process to end the war, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said on Saturday.
The announcement by Grundberg marks the latest step to end the nine-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
It follows recent meetings by Grundberg in Saudi Arabia and Oman with Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, and Mohammed Abdul Salam, the chief negotiator of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Photo: EPA-EFE
A statement by Grundberg’s office quoted him as saying he “welcomes the parties’ commitment to a set of measures to implement a nation-wide ceasefire ... and [to] engage in preparations for the resumption of an inclusive political process.”
The envoy “will now engage with the parties to establish a road map under UN auspices that includes these commitments and supports their implementation,” the statement added.
Yemen has been gripped by conflict since the Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, triggering a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the beleaguered government the following year.
A UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect in April last year brought a sharp reduction in hostilities. The truce expired in October last year, although fighting largely remains on hold.
Grundberg would now “engage with the parties to establish a roadmap under UN auspices” to end the war, the statement said.
The road map also includes commitments to pay civil servants’ salaries, open routes into the rebel-blockaded city of Taez and other parts of Yemen and resume oil exports, it said.
“Yemenis are watching and waiting for this new opportunity to provide for tangible results and progress toward lasting peace,” Grundberg said. “The parties have taken a significant step. Their commitments are, first and foremost, an obligation to the Yemeni people.”
The agreement comes amid a flurry of attacks by the Houthi rebels on key shipping lanes in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is fighting Hamas militants.
The Houthis have pledged to attack Israel-linked vessels or ships heading to Israeli ports unless an end is brought to the Israel-Hamas war that started on Oct. 7.
They have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels involving more than 35 different countries, the Pentagon has said.
The attacks by the rebels are imperilling a transit route that carries up to 12 percent of global trade, prompting the US to set up a multinational naval task force to protect Red Sea shipping.
The Houthi “military actions hinder progress toward a peaceful resolution,” said Mohammed Albasha, a senior Middle East analyst for the US-based Navanti Group.
“The Houthis have transitioned ... to becoming aggressors targeting civilian assets,” he said.
The latest agreement coincides with a push by Saudi Arabia to extricate itself from the conflict, despite slim hopes of lasting peace.
The oil-rich monarchy gave a signal this year by resuming ties with Iran, which backs the Houthis against the Saudi-supported government in a proxy war.
The Saudi-led intervention’s stated aim was to protect civilians from Houthi attacks, restore the government and stop Yemen becoming a safe haven for Iranian-backed forces.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person