Cairo: Yemen’s pro-Iran Al Houthi militia said late Friday night that it will halt drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, one week after it claimed responsibility for a strike that crippled a key oil facility in the kingdom.
The US and the Saudis blamed the September 14 attack on Iran, which backs the militia fighting a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump on Friday approved sending American troops to bolster Saudi Arabia’s air defences after the largest-ever attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities, which Washington has squarely blamed on Iran.
The Pentagon said the deployment would involve a moderate number of troops - not numbering thousands - and would be primarily defensive in nature.
Mahdi Al Mashat, head of Al Houthis’ supreme political council, which runs rebel-held areas in Yemen, said the group is waiting for a “positive response” from Saudi Arabia. His comments were carried by the Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite TV.
The announcement could be a first step toward a wider ceasefire in Yemen, but it remained unclear, and there was no immediate response from the Saudi-led coalition.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for restraint and said the both parties had agreed to respect a December cease-fire deal in the Hodeida area, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and sparked what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
