A photo taken on March 18, 2018 shows a Yemeni child looking out for buildings damaged in an air raid in the city of Taez in southern Yemen.
AHMAD AL-BASHA | AFP | Getty images
WASHINGTON – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Monday proposed a new peace initiative that would usher in the end of the war in Yemen.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said on Monday that the plan would include a nationwide ceasefire, the reopening of Sana’a airport and the import of fuel and food through the port of Hodeidah. .
The civil war in Yemen escalated in 2014 when Houthi forces, alliance with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took over the country’s capital.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have carried out attacks on the Houthis in Yemen. Former President Donald Trump’s administration had backed the Saudi Arabia-led intervention in Yemen.
Trump vetoed a measure aimed at ending US military aid and involvement in Yemen in 2019. Trump said at the time that the Congressional resolution was “unnecessary” and that it “endangered the lives of American citizens and brave servants, both today and in the future.”
Lawmakers backing the measure criticized Saudi Arabia for a slew of bombings that caused thousands of civilian casualties in Yemen.
Last month, President Joe Biden announced the end of US support for offensive operations in Yemen and appointed a new envoy to oversee the country’s diplomatic mission to end the civil war there.
“This war must end,” Biden said during his first foreign policy speech as president. “We are ending all US support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.”
“At the same time, Saudi Arabia is facing missile and UAV strikes and other threats from Iranian-supplied forces in multiple countries,” Biden said. “We will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and its people.”
The president engaged Tim Lenderking, deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran, Iraq and regional multilateral affairs, to oversee the US diplomatic mission to end the war in Yemen.
Biden’s policy of ending support for offensive operations will not extend to US military actions against the region’s al-Qaeda affiliate known as AQAP.
Biden also halted sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia to assess possible human rights violations.
The United Nations has previously said that the ongoing armed conflict in Yemen has triggered the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis. According to State Department figures, the US provided more than $ 630 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen in fiscal year 2020.