AL-MUKALLA: The Iran-backed Houthis have made additional demands in order to accept Saudi peace mediation, including an agreement between the militia and Saudi Arabia, dashing expectations of striking a peace deal to end the war in Yemen before the conclusion of Ramadan.
A Yemeni government official told Arab News that Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber delayed his return to Riyadh after the Houthis rejected Saudi Arabia as a mediator and demanded that the Kingdom execute a peace agreement with them instead of the group signing the agreement with the Yemeni government. The Saudi ambassador rejected this demand. “Negotiations (in Sanaa) are difficult and complex and require more time,” a Yemeni government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. Over the weekend, Saudi delegations led by Al-Jaber and others from Oman arrived in Sanaa to discuss with the Houthis a semi-final text of a peace agreement, endorsed by Yemen’s internationally recognized government, to end the war.
The agreement includes a six-month extension of the UN-brokered truce, inter-Yemeni talks for six months, a two-year transitional period, the payment of public employees in Houthi-controlled areas, the lifting of restrictions on Sanaa airport and Hodeidah ports, and the lifting of the Houthi siege of Taiz. Houthi sources told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that the militia was hesitant to accept Saudi mediation because certain Houthi religious and political figures perceive Riyadh as a participant in the conflict rather than a mediator and that a peace deal before the end of Ramadan was unlikely. –Agencies
