Friends,
For those of us who have been protesting against the Saudi assault on the
people of Yemen, we see this as a glimmer of hope. But we recognize that
Saudi Arabia is ruled by an oppressive regime, and thus we are leary of this
“peace” offering. Also we are still protesting any shipment of arms
which would be loaded on a Saudi ship at the Port of Baltimore. No US
weapons should be delivered to Saudi Arabia.
Kagiso,
Max
Saudi Arabia Declares
Cease-Fire in Yemen, Citing Fears of Coronavirus
If it sticks, the cease-fire would be the first nationwide truce
in five years of war in Yemen.
Yemeni fighters loyal to the Saudi-led coalition last year at the
front line in Nehim, Yemen. Credit...Tyler
Hicks/The New York Times
Published April 8, 2020Updated April 9, 2020, 9:23 a.m. ET
BEIRUT,
Lebanon — Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced that the kingdom and its allies
would observe a unilateral cease-fire in the war in Yemen starting at noon on
Thursday, a move that could pave the way for ending the brutal five-year-old
conflict.
Saudi
officials said the cease-fire sought to jump-start peace talks brokered by the
United Nations and had been motivated by fears of the coronavirus spreading in
Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, where the health care system has
been ravaged by years of blockade and conflict.
The
gesture is the first by any government entangled in an international armed
conflict to halt hostilities at least in part because of the coronavirus
pandemic, which has traumatized the world. The leader of the United Nations,
Secretary General António Guterres, pleaded for a worldwide humanitarian
cease-fire two weeks ago because of the pandemic.
While
Yemen is one of the few countries in the world yet to have a confirmed case of
Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, aid workers fear that an outbreak
there would be devastating for the war-torn country. Saudi Arabia itself has
struggled to stop the virus from spreading, including inside its own sprawling royal
family.
Amal Hussain, 7, who suffered from severe acute malnutrition, at a
Unicef-run mobile clinic in 2018 in Aslam, Yemen. She later died. Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
The
cease-fire, the Saudi officials said, would last for two weeks and include
Saudi Arabia’s Arab allies and the internationally recognized Yemeni
government, which was effectively toppled in 2014 when a rebel group aligned
with Iran and known as the Houthis took over much of the country’s northwest
and its capital, Sana.
Saudi
Arabia and its allies have been fighting since March 2015 to push the Houthis
back and restore the Yemeni government — with little success.
The
Houthis were not consulted before the cease-fire was announced, Saudi officials
said, speaking on condition that they not be identified by name, and the
kingdom reserved the right to respond if the Houthis fired missiles into Saudi
territory.
But
shortly before the Saudi announcement, a senior Houthi official, Mohammed Ali
al-Houthi, posted a detailed, eight-page plan to end the war on his Twitter
account, raising questions about whether the warring parties were competing to
appear more interested in peace than their enemies.
Destruction in the old city of Sana.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
When
asked why the Saudis would suddenly, after five years of war, propose a
nationwide cease-fire, Elana DeLozier, a research fellow at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy who studies Yemen, attributed it to the
pandemic.
“Coronavirus
is the answer,” she said. “Coronavirus has freaked out everyone in Yemen.”
She
called the Saudi announcement “the biggest concession and the biggest confidence-building
measure that the Saudis have given since the beginning of the war.”
And
the Saudis appeared to be using it as a way to gauge the Houthis’ willingness
to negotiate.
“It
really is a test case,” she said.
That
meant that the cease-fire’s immediate success will largely depend on compliance
by the Houthis, whose leaders did not immediately respond to the Saudi
announcement.
Their
forces have been making gains against Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in recent
months, which may make them hesitant to give concessions. But they could see
benefits to engaging in a peace process, if they feel that it recognizes the
power they have gained during the war.
Saudi
officials said the Yemeni government, most of whose officials live in Riyadh at
the kingdom’s expense, had agreed to the cease-fire as well, but no Yemeni
officials were on a telephone conference call with journalists to announce the
cease-fire.
Airstrikes have destroyed bridges, like this one in Bani Hassan,
along with factories, fishing boats and fields. Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
After
the cease-fire was announced, Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense
minister, wrote on Twitter that the kingdom would give the United Nations $500
million for humanitarian work in Yemen and $25 million to fight the
coronavirus.
Despite
the cease-fire’s tenuousness, Martin Griffiths, the United Nations special
envoy to Yemen, hailed the announcement in a statement, saying it should create a fertile
environment for peace talks.
“The
parties must now utilize this opportunity and cease immediately all hostilities
with the utmost urgency, and make progress towards comprehensive and
sustainable peace,” Mr. Griffiths said.
Even
before the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations described Yemen as the
world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster. A large majority of the country’s
28 million people face hunger, disease and other deprivations.
Ben Hubbard reported from Beirut, and Saeed Al-Batati from Al
Mukalla, Yemen.
Ben Hubbard is the Beirut bureau chief. He has spent more than a
decade in the Arab world, including Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt
and Yemen. @NYTBen • Facebook
A version of this article appears in print on April 9,
2020, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the
headline: Saudi Arabia Declares Cease-Fire In Yemen, Citing Fears of
Coronavirus. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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