Is there still a glimmer of hope for Yemen?

The first consequence of the US call for a ceasefire in Yemen last week seems to be an intensification of fighting. On Friday, more than 100 Houthi rebels were killed in the worst fighting for months around the besieged port city of Hodeida.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said last week that the United States wanted all warring parties to be gathered around the table within 30 days, on the basis of an armistice, the withdrawal of Houthi rebels from the border area with Saudi Arabia and the end of the bombing.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mike Pompeo called on all parties to give the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths every opportunity. Sweden has proposed to host future peace talks

In fact, Yemen is the battleground between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Read on: This war gives Yemen the last advance in the abyss

The resumption of the Battle of Hodeida may indicate that the warring parties take America's deadline seriously. When a record is in sight, it is important that the conflicting parties gain the most ground possible in the remaining time. Troops loyal to the Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia have been trying to conquer Hodeida for five months on Houthi rebels.

For the civilian population, it means more suffering first. The fighting in Hodeida may worsen an already catastrophic situation, as they threaten the supply of much of the country

According to UNICEF figures, 1.8 million Children in Yemen suffer from malnutrition, of which 400,000 are acute. This is not so much that there is no food in stock, but it does not affect the market or the population can not afford the prices.

Unicef ​​Director for North Africa and the Middle East, Geert Cappelaere, went last week. in Hodeida and one of the last hospitals in operation. He saw emaciated children and children paralyzed by diphtheria – a disease that can normally be prevented by vaccination

Cappelaere spoke of Sara, 10, during a conversation with [TheGuardian] . "Enter this poor girl who is half paralyzed and who is now talking about her bombs everywhere.And for what? In order to have a better negotiating position at the Swedish table in the future?"

But if the peace talks on Yemen had a chance of success for the first time, they would have less to do with dying children than with the Khashoggi affair. The gruesome killing of the Saudi dissident at the consulate in Istanbul has, as never before, been centered on Saudi Arabia and Western support for the Saudi war in Yemen.

The US Congress has attempted to subordinate Saudi military support to the demonstrable efforts of Riad to prevent the deaths of civilians. These attempts have so far been unsuccessful. But the Kashoggi affair and the likelihood of Democrats getting a majority in the House of Representatives this week in the mid-term elections will increase pressure on the Trump government.

Britain also seems to be attacking it. London would now be ready to support a UN Security Council resolution calling on Saudi Arabia and Houthist rebels backed by Iran to stop fighting and allow humanitarian aid

Read also the column of Carolien Roelants: The siege of Yemen, with the West as an accomplice

"For the first time, there seems to be an opening in which both parties can be encouraged to s & rsquo; sit down at the table, end the murder and political conflict, find a solution, "said British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt.

We still do not know what this solution could be. The reason the United States supported the war in Saudi Arabia in Yemen has not changed: the idea that the Houthi rebels are the propellers of Iran in the battle for hegemony in the region.

Much depends on the persistence of international indignation over the assassination of Khashoggi and, to a lesser extent, the suffering of Yemeni citizens. Because recently, some Saudi reforms – letting women drive and open cinemas – have been enough to forget the thousands of deaths and famine in Yemen.