News Desk - The Cradle
An Ansarallah official stated that Saudi Arabia must be a direct party to the deal, rather than a mediator between competing Yemeni governments
“The group’s leadership refuses to sign any agreement in which Saudi Arabia is a mediator and not a main party,” an anonymous Ansarallah official stated to the Russian news outlet, without providing further details.
Yemen is split between multiple competing governments. Ansarallah governs Yemen’s central and northern governorates. These are the most populous regions of Yemen and include the capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-backed Yemeni government and UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council rule the remainder of the country.
But the war that began in 2015 was effectively between Ansarallah on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia and UAE on the other. Saudi Arabia and the UAE also enjoyed support from the US and UK in bombing Yemen as they sought to dislodge Ansarallah and impose their preferred government on Yemen.
The war killed tens of thousands, while hundreds of thousands died due to disease and hunger in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in decades.
A diplomatic source in the Saudi-backed Yemeni government reported Monday that "the signing of the road map to achieve peace in Yemen will take place in the city of Mecca in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia early next month."
The source told Sputnik that “the United Nations, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultanate of Oman are making intensive arrangements to sign the agreement in Mecca on the specified date, early next January.”
He pointed out that "Saudi Arabia has sponsored the payment of salaries for a full year to all government employees in all regions of Yemen, according to the statements of 2014, during which the export of Yemeni oil and gas will be resumed so that the economy can regain its breath, and the salaries will be covered by oil exports."
The source expressed hope that "the road map will soon be signed and that no obstacles will arise."
Last Sunday, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement casting itself as a mediator rather than direct party to the conflict. The statement spoke of the "Kingdom’s continued support for Yemen and its brotherly people, and its constant keenness to encourage the Yemeni parties to sit at the dialogue table, to reach a comprehensive and lasting political solution under the auspices of the United Nations, and to move Yemen to a comprehensive renaissance and sustainable development that fulfills the aspirations of its brotherly people.”
In an apparent effort to preserve the peace agreement, Saudi Arabia declined the US request to join a naval coalition to deter Ansarallah attacks on Israeli-linked ships traveling through the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait toward the Suez Canal.
Ansarallah has carried out over 100 drone and missile attacks on commercial ships with Israeli ownership or destined for Israel, and has launched missiles and drones at Israel’s southern Eilat port.
Ansarallah carried out its attacks in an effort to stop Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza, which Ansarallah leaders and others view as a genocide, one that has now killed 21,000, the majority of whom are women and children.
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