Dubai: Yemen’s Al Houthi group said on Wednesday it was ready to stop fighting and join a national unity government, raising hopes of a resolution to a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.
The announcement appeared to confirm the details of a deal set out by US Secretary of State John Kerry a day earlier that he said included plans for a ceasefire starting on Thursday.
Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, a member of the political council of Al Houthis’ Ansarullah group, said Saudi Arabia had also agreed to end its involvement in the war — though there was no official confirmation from Riyadh.
An Arab alliance led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemen conflict in March last year in support of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi after the Iran-aligned Al Houthis advanced on his interim capital in Aden and forced him into exile.
“Ansarullah’s position has been and still is with stopping the war and the establishment of a national unity government that incorporates all political components,” Al Bukhaiti told Reuters, responding to a question on Kerry’s announcement.
The war has displaced more than three million people, left parts of the population on the edge of starvation and given room for a powerful branch of Al Qaida to expand its operations.
Kerry, in what could be his last trip to the Gulf before President Barack Obama’s term ends in January, said on Tuesday that officials from Al Houthi group and the Saudi-led coalition meeting had agreed to a ceasefire starting on Thursday.
Underlining the complexity of the situation, Hadi’s government quickly rejected the move, complaining that it had been bypassed. Copies of a UN peace plan seen by Reuters in October suggested he would be sidelined in any future government.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul Malek Al Mekhlafi said Kerry’s announcement had not been coordinated with the government which, he said, was not interested in the plan.
“I believe the current US administration is incapable of providing any guarantees to any party and what Kerry has said is no more than a media bubble at our people’s expense,” Al Mekhlafi told Qatar-based Al Jazeera television.
Oman confirmed that delegates from Al Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sana’a had agreed to abide by a cessation of hostilities provided that the other side in the conflict abided by it, state news agency ONA reported.
ONA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying that peace talks would resume at the end of November on the basis of a plan presented by the UN envoy to Yemen, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, and that a unity government in Sana’a would be expected by the end of the year.
The front-line has changed little over the past few months despite repeated offensives by Hadi’s supporters who operate under air cover from the Saudi-led alliance.
Hadi’s government says Al Houthis have illegally seized power in a coup backed by Iran, and demands that they quit the cities they have seized and hand over heavy weapons before any political settlement starts.
Al Houthis say they seized power to end corruption and to get rid of Islamist militants they say had expanded their influence during Hadi’s presidency.
