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  • Houthis target Yemeni government with economic warfare

    Even as the Iran-backed Houthi rebels pursue back-channel talks with Saudi Arabia as Riyadh looks for a major de-escalation in the coming weeks, they have also been ratcheting up the pressure on the internationally recognized Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG). On Feb. 16, 2023, the ambassadors of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Houthi drone attacks on vital Yemeni infrastructure, noting that, “Yemen possesses natural resources that enable it to meet the needs of its citizens if it is able to resume exporting oil and gas, without being attacked by the Houthis.”

  • Donors pledge $1.2 bln of $4.3 bln sought for Yemen aid plan

    The United Nations raised around $1.2 billion from crisis-strained donors on Monday towards its $4.3 billion aid plan for Yemen, one of the world's biggest humanitarian disasters despite a no-war, no-peace stalemate that has largely stopped fighting. Underfunding has seen agencies scale back Yemen aid projects, including food rations, in the past couple of years. Last year donors gave $2.2 billion of the $4.27 billion sought, U.N. data shows.

  • Yemen’s Hodeidah receives first ship carrying general cargo in years amid truce push

    A container ship carrying general commercial goods docked at Yemen's main port of Hodeidah for the first time since at least 2016 on Saturday as parties in Yemen's eight-year war are in talks to reinstate an expired U.N.-brokered truce deal. The conflict, which pits a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-aligned Houthi group, has divided Yemen and caused a humanitarian crisis that has left 80% of the 30 million population needing help.

  • Saudi Arabia to deposit $1 billion in Yemen’s central bank

    Saudi Arabia will make a $1 billion deposit in Yemen's Aden-based central bank on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA said, as the government there struggles with a weak currency and high fuel and commodity prices. Riyadh leads a military coalition in Yemen that has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis since 2015 after the movement ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital, Sanaa.

  • UN votes unanimously to extend sanctions on Yemen’s Houthis

    The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the arms embargo on Yemen’s Houthi rebels and an asset freeze and travel ban on Houthi leaders and top officials until Nov. 15. The British-drafted resolution also extends the mandate of the U.N. panel of experts monitoring the sanctions until Dec. 15.

  • French Forces Seize Iranian-Supplied Weapons Bound for Yemen

    Elite French special forces seized a boatload of Iranian-supplied weapons and ammunition bound for militants in Yemen as part of a deepening effort to contain Tehran, according to officials familiar with the operation.

  • Yemen official hopeful Saudi-Houthi talks will bring about breakthrough

    Yemeni officials are hopeful of a breakthrough as direct talks begin between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia in a bid to negotiate an end to more than eight years of war. The talks come after attempts to extend a UN-brokered truce broke down in October and the Houthis launched several attacks on oil ships and ports, although widespread fighting did not resume on major front lines. "The Saudi delegation was recently in Sanaa," a Yemeni official said. "They discussed everything but didn't agree on anything yet. They both heard each other. Everyone knows the red line of the other party.

  • Opinion: Yemen’s Fragile Truce Needs More Than Talks to Survive

    Among those of the glass-half-full persuasion, the nine-month pause in hostilities in Yemen’s civil war is reason for hope. The Houthi rebels have restarted back-channel talks with Saudi Arabia, fueling optimism about an extension of the longest truce in an eight-year conflict that has devastated the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country and endangered some of the world’s most important trade routes.

  • Davos 2023: Saudi foreign minister sees progress to end Yemen conflict

    "The conflict is only going to end through a political settlement and that needs to be the focus, and I can say that we are making progress but there's still work to be done," Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "What we need now is ...to find a way to get that truce reinstated ... (and) transition that into a permanent ceasefire," he said. "Is that going to happen? It's not clear right now, there are significant obstacles in the way".

  • Yemen rebels, Saudis in back-channel talks to maintain truce

    Amid Yemen’s longest-ever pause in fighting — more than nine months — Saudi Arabia and its rival, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, have revived back-channel talks, according to Yemeni, Saudi and U.N. officials. The two sides hope to strengthen the informal cease-fire and lay out a path for a negotiated end to the long civil war. The quiet is fragile, with no formal cease-fire in place since a U.N.-brokered truce ended in October. It has been shaken by Houthi attacks on oil facilities and fiery rhetoric from Yemen’s internationally recognized government, allied with Saudi Arabia, which complains it has so far been left out of the talks. Lack of progress could lead to a breakdown and a renewal of all-out fighting.