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The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen has suspended an assault on a vital port city, as the kingdom comes under international pressure to undertake peace talks to end the bloody three-year war.
The coalition forces, made up of Yemeni militias backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have shifted to a defensive posture to facilitate United Nations-led peace talks with Houthi rebels, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday.
The battle for Hodeidah, under way since June, had subsided in recent days to give space for aid workers and wounded civilians to evacuate.
“There’s a halt to the offensive given the humanitarian situation,” said Col. Mamoon al-Mahjami, a spokesman for Yemen’s coalition-allied Giant Brigades.
The pause comes amid growing international pressure on Saudi Arabia and its allies to make peace in Yemen, as the human cost of the conflict mounts. The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October has heightened scrutiny of the kingdom’s foreign policy.
A woman displaced from Hodeidah outside her family shelter in the Yemeni capital of San’a on Nov. 2
Photo:
mohamed al-sayaghi/Reuters
After more than 3½ years of fighting, Yemen has become arguably the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with aid agencies estimating that some 14 million people are on the brink of famine. An outbreak of cholera exacerbated by broken sanitation infrastructure surpassed a million suspected cases in 2018.
Saudi Arabia’s coalition, supported by the U.S., wants to uproot the Houthis as part of efforts to prevent Iran from nurturing a proxy militia in Yemen. By taking Hodeidah, the hope is to cut off Iranian supplies of missiles to the rebels and to nudge them toward a peace deal.
Ultimately, the coalition aims to unseat the Houthis from the capital, San’a, and to reinstall the internationally backed government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Mr. Hadi was forced to flee after Houthi militants stormed San’a in 2014.
Previous rounds of Yemen peace talks have faltered. The last one, set for September in Geneva, never started, after the Houthis failed to show up on time. Each side blamed the other.
There was no time limit attached to the new pause in hostilities, the person familiar with the matter said. Saudi Arabia and its allies are pushing for a quick return to negotiations mediated by U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths. On Wednesday, Anwar Gargash, the U.A.E.’s minister of state for foreign Affairs, tweeted that he welcomed an early convening of peace talks in Sweden.
For the U.S., ending the war in Yemen has shot up the list of foreign-policy priorities. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Oct. 30 for a cease-fire and new talks in November.
U.S. congressional efforts to dial back military support for Saudi Arabia have increased and could intensify after Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January. Last week, the U.S. announced it would stop refueling Saudi coalition warplanes bombing Yemen, saying the coalition had developed its own capabilities. The U.S. still gives the coalition limited intelligence assistance and sells weapons to coalition members.
Despite the pause in the assault on Hodeidah, a Red Sea port city through which about 70% of Yemen’s food comes in, a formal cease-fire has yet to be agreed.
The person familiar with the situation said that despite the pause, coalition forces would still use force to prevent the Houthis from gaining advantage, and that they were ready to resume the offensive quickly if the rebels attacked or if efforts to convene new talks stalled.
Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the coalition, wouldn’t confirm the pause, saying military operations were ongoing.
“Each operation has its own specifics and pace,” he said.
Write to Asa Fitch at [email protected]
