Local Editor
Saudi Arabia has held talks with Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement for the first time in more than two years in a sign to de-escalate hostilities in the impoverished Arab country, a report by The Financial Times says.
The negotiations began after the Houthis announced they would stop launching retaliatory drone and missile attacks against positions inside Saudi Arabia, if the Saudi-led coalition, which has been pounding Yemen for the past several years, reciprocates the initiative in kind, The Financial Times reported on Saturday.
On September 20, President of the Supreme Political Council in the Yemeni capital, Mahdi al-Mashat said the Ansarullah movement would stop targeting Saudi territories with drones and ballistic missiles, hoping Riyadh would reciprocate the gesture.
The Houthi top official also called for serious negotiations among all parties involved in the persisting conflict.
Mashat’s comments came a month after the Houthi fighters conducted retaliatory drone and missile strikes on two of Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. The attacks led to a halt in about 50 percent of the Arab kingdom’s crude and gas production, causing a surge in oil prices.
The United States blamed Iran for the attacks, a charge Tehran categorically denies.
According to an unnamed Western diplomat, the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities have been a key factor behind the shift in Riyadh’s position.
“It’s very fragile but I think both sides have an interest in it working,” the diplomat said. “It’s not peace in Yemen, we are possibly talking about end of daily bombardments across the country and missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, while the UN tries to move on with a political agreement.”
The FT report said another factor behind Riyadh’s shift has been the weakening of its coalition after the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s main ally, announced in July that it was drawing down parts of its troop presence in Yemen.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
