UN announces cease-fire in Yemen agreed by the parties

The peace process in Yemen has received a major boost seven years after the start of the war. The warring parties to the conflict agreed on Friday to establish a nationwide ceasefire that will come into effect this Saturday from 19:00 local time (16:00 GMT) and will last 'a priori' until next June. The two-month truce also coincides with the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

"I thank the parties for working with me and my office in good faith and making the necessary compromises to reach this agreement. The goal of this truce is to give Yemenis a needed respite from so much violence," announced the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, who appealed to the commitment of the Saudi-led international coalition and the Houthi militia. "More importantly, the hope that an end to this conflict is possible.

The announcement came as a surprise to both insiders and outsiders because, two days earlier, the Yemeni insurgents rejected the unilateral proposal announced by the international coalition for a ceasefire at the Riyadh summit of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), which the Houthis themselves did not attend. The Houthis, however, demanded a number of conditions that appear to have been met: lifting the blockade and releasing prisoners.

The coalition, which controls air and sea space, will lift blockades on the airport in the capital, Sana'a, and the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeidah. Commercial flights will be allowed to operate and boats will be allowed access to the coast, two avenues through which humanitarian aid could enter a war-torn country suffering one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises.

The parties will extend negotiations for the reopening of roads in the besieged town of Taiz in the southwest of the country, according to Grundberg. They will also discuss a prisoner exchange involving hundreds of people, including 16 Saudis, three Sudanese and a brother of Yemen's president, according to Reuters. On these two conditions depends a hypothetical extension of the ceasefire, or its breakdown by either side.

"Both agreed to halt all offensive military air, land and sea operations inside Yemen and across its borders," the UN special envoy stressed. The last cessation of hostilities took place in 2016 in the framework of peace talks in Sweden, which resumed unsuccessfully in 2018 in an atmosphere of mutual distrust. Mistrust that Grundberg called to overcome: "All Yemeni women, men and children who have suffered immensely during more than seven years of war expect nothing less than its end."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres applauded a decision that should mark "the beginning of a better future for the people of Yemen". Support for the process also came from Washington. The White House welcomed the progress, which for the moment is "insufficient", and praised the role of Saudi Arabia and Oman in establishing the ceasefire, as well as the role of the United Nations.

Tehran has spoken out on the matter. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said he hoped that the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan would bring "an improvement in humanitarian conditions and an exchange of prisoners between the parties to the conflict", and expressed the high expectations of the Ayatollahs' regime to find a political solution to the conflict.

Iran is the main ally of the Yemeni insurgency, which it has supplied with weapons, technology and military training through the Quds Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and jointly with Hezbollah and other like-minded militias in the region. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, leading members of the international coalition, are fighting on the side of the internationally recognised government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi.

In 2014, Yemen was the target of a fratricidal war between clans that had been brewing since at least 2011 with the eruption of the Arab Spring. But the escalation of the conflict turned into a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran, between Sunnis and Shiites, to maintain regional dominance. Nearly 400,000 people have died since then, some 240,000 from starvation or lack of health care.