Yemen Envoy Sees Path to End World’s Worst Humanitarian Disaster
Yemen Envoy Sees Path to End World’s Worst Humanitarian Disaster
(Bloomberg) -- Yemen’s government wants to resume direct peace talks with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels to end a brutal five-year conflict, but getting the insurgents back to the negotiating table will require both military pressure and international diplomacy, the nation’s U.S. envoy said.
“We want peace and want to end this war,” Ambassador Ahmed Bin Mubarak said in an interview in Washington on Wednesday. “Ending the war for us doesn’t mean just stopping the airstrikes. The Houthis, when they ensure there is no military pressure on them, will never come to the table.”
The ambassador commented as Yemen’s conflict risks escalating even further after five years of fighting that’s created what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. A UN-commissioned report in April said the conflict, including side effects such as disease, will have killed about 233,000 people by the end of last month. That’s about 0.8% of the country’s population.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, arrived in the capital Sana’a on Thursday in a bid to stop an escalation in clashes between the rebels and government forces in Nehm district, northeast of Sana’a. Griffiths called on the parties involved to take all necessary measures to de-escalate clashes that have reportedly killed dozens.
An attack on a military base in Marib killed more than 100 government soldiers earlier this month. The government blamed the Houthis, who denied they were behind the strikes by missiles and drones.
The conflict in Yemen has dragged on for years after Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015 in an effort to roll back gains being made by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The rebels were sweeping south through the impoverished country and threatening to seize control of the country from the government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi when the Saudi-led coalition stepped in.
Halting the Houthi advance would have been impossible otherwise, Mubarak said. “Without Saudi support and airstrikes, the Houthis and Iran would control the entire of Yemen,” he said.
The coalition forced the Houthis out of much of the territory in the south and east but failed to push the rebels from Sana’a, territory along the Saudi border and the Red Sea city of Hodeidah. With support from Tehran, the Houthis have held off Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates despite being vastly overspent on military hardware.
‘Make Some Success’
Mubarak said that Yemeni officials don’t want the war to morph into an even broader international conflict. “We hope that we will keep the international voices unified on Yemen,” he said. “Let’s let them fight in Syria, Libya, but let them put all their efforts together and make some success in Yemen.”
While the U.S. provides military support to Saudi Arabia and has targeted radical Sunni militants fighting for al-Qaeda and Islamic State, it has avoided getting dragged directly into the conflict on the side of Saudi-led coalition and the Yemeni government. It’s helped the government by imposing crippling sanctions on Iran, Mubarak said.
The pressure will “have an impact on the Yemeni situation” by limiting Iran’s ability to fund the Houthis, Mubarak said. “The administration is sending the right messages, strong messages, which we do appreciate. We think this is very helpful.”
Efforts to end the country’s conflict have been complicated by tension between the internationally recognized government and U.A.E.-backed separatists in the south.
U.A.E. Role
The U.A.E. told the Yemeni government in June that it planned to unwind its military role in the war-ravaged country by the end of last year, a decision that raised concerns that the country may split apart if Hadi’s government lost control of the south. The Saudis sent troops into the south as the U.A.E. pulled its forces and “put all their weight” on this situation, Mubarak said.
“Weakening the legitimate government in Yemen, and its institutions, will prolong the conflict,” Mubarak added.
Since 2015, the war has allowed a resurgence by al-Qaeda and Islamic State in the security vacuum in some areas of the country. It’s also causing splits along sectarian lines that didn’t exist in Yemen before the war, one being abetted by Houthi religious indoctrination of Yemeni youth, Mubarak said.
“This is what concerns me more than the destruction of the infrastructure or the war,” he said. “What concerns me more is the social fabric of Yemen. The cracks -- this is something that will stay for decades.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.net;Mohammed Hatem in Dubai at mhatem1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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