Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has made a cautious response to a conditional offer made by Yemen’s Iran-allied Al Houthi militants to end attacks on the kingdom after a recent strike on Saudi oil facilities.
On Friday, Al Houthis unveiled what they called a peace initiative offering to halt all their drone and missile attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia in exchange for ending a campaign by a Saudi-led military alliance against them.
In the first Saudi comment to the offer, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al Jubeir said: “We judge other parties by their deeds, actions and not by their words, so we will see whether they actually do this or not.”
We judge other parties by their deeds, actions and not by their words, so we will see whether they actually do this or not.
Asharq Al Awsat newspaper quoted him as saying in Riyadh on Saturday: “And regarding what prompted them to do this... we have to do more intensive studies.”
Al Jubeir later told Al Arabiya television that the Arab aliance, fighting Al Houthis in Yemen, targets military sites only.
For his side, Yemen’s UN envoy Martin Griffiths has welcomed Al Houthis’ offer, saying it could “send a powerful message” to end the years-long war in Yemen.
Yemen’s conflict erupted after Al Houthis unseated the internationally recognised government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and overran parts of the country, including the capital Sana’a, in December 2014.
In 2015, the Arab alliance led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, intervened in Yemen in response to a request from the Hadi government after Al Houthis advanced on the southern city of Aden, the country’s provisional capital.
