Houthis and Saudis in back-channel talks to maintain truce
A Yemeni fighter backed by the Saudi-led coalition fires his weapon during clashes with Houthi rebels on the Kassara frontline near Marib, Yemen, June 20, 2021
AMID Yemen’s longest pause in fighting — more than nine months — Saudi Arabia and its rival, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, have revived back-channel talks, hoping to strengthen the informal ceasefire and lay out a path for a negotiated end to the long war, according to Yemeni, Saudi and UN officials.
The peace is fragile, with no formal ceasefire in place since a UN-brokered truce ended in October.
It has been shaken by Houthi attacks on oil facilities and fiery rhetoric from Yemen’s UN-recognised government, allied with Saudi Arabia, which complains it has so far been left out of the talks.
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