The Saudi-led coalition carried out air strikes in Yemenlink early on Sunday after the country’sHuthi rebels link called a three-day trucelink and offered a permanent ceasefire,Saudi media said.
The raids targeted Sanaa, the rebel-held capital, according to Saudi Arabialink Al Ekhbariya TV, whichtweeted “the start of air strikes on Huthi camps and strongholds in Sanaa”around midnight.
The attacks link began shortly after theIran-backed Huthis announced a three-day trucelink and offered peace talks on conditionthat the Saudis stop their air strikes and blockade of Yemenlink and remove “foreign forces”.
Rebel reports of casualties could not be independently confirmed.
The Huthi truce link followed a wave ofdrone and missile attacks link on Sauditargets on Friday, including an oil depot near Jeddah’s Formula One trackthat turned into a raging inferno during televised practice sessions.
It was announced on the seventh anniversary of the intervention led byoil-rich Saudi Arabia link in Yemenlink, its impoverished neighbour, after theHuthis seized Sanaa in 2014.
The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people directly orindirectly and displaced millions, creating what the United Nations callsthe world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The Huthis have turned down an invitation to peace talks in Riyadh,scheduled for the coming days, to be hosted by the six-nation GulfCooperation Council.
*Yemen link rebelslink call trucelink after wave of attackslink on Saudi Arabialink*
Yemen link Huthi rebelslink announced a three-day trucelink with the Saudi-led coalition anddangled the prospect of a “permanent” ceasefire on Saturday, the seventhanniversary of a brutal conflict that has left millions on the brink offamine.
A day after a wave of Huthi drone and missile attackslink on Saudi targets, including an oilplant that turned into an inferno near the Formula One race in Jeddah,political leader Mahdi al-Mashat put rebel operations on hold.
As thousands of people marched in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, to markthe anniversary, Mashat appeared on TV to announce the “suspension ofmissile and drone strikes and all military actions for a period of threedays”.
“And we are ready to turn this declaration into a final and permanentcommitment in the event that Saudi Arabialink commits to ending the siegeand stopping its raids on Yemen link onceand for all,” he said.
There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabialink, which retaliated to Friday’sattacks link by launching air strikesagainst the Iran-backed rebels link inSanaa and Hodeida, and destroying four explosives-laden boats.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned the rebel strikes andreprisals by the Saudi-led coalition, calling on “all parties to exercisemaximum restraint” and “urgently reach a negotiated settlement to end theconflict”.
Israel, which does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabialink, expressed its “sorrow” overthe Huthi attack.
“This attack is further proof that Iran’s regional aggression knows nobounds,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Twitter in a rare publicmessage to the kingdom.
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French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the rebel attack andexpressed “solidarity” with Saudi Arabialink.
Yemen link, the Arab world’s poorest countryeven before the war, has been teetering on the brink of catastrophe foryears as the complex conflict rages on multiple fronts.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, directly or indirectly,and millions have been displaced in what the UN calls the world’s worsthumanitarian crisis.
*- ‘Peace will come’ -*
Mashat said the Huthis are ready to “release all coalition prisoners,including (president Abdrabbuh Mansur) Hadi’s brother, militia prisonersand other nationalities in exchange for the full release of all ourprisoners”.
“The Saudi regime must prove its seriousness… by responding to aceasefire, lifting the siege and expelling foreign forces from our country.
“And then peace will come and then it will be time to talk about politicalsolutions in a calm atmosphere away from any military or humanitarianpressure.”
The Tehran-backed rebels link’ surprisemove came exactly seven years after the Saudi-led coalition’s interventionto support Yemen link government, afterthe Huthis seized Sanaa in 2014.
After months of negotiations, Iran is near to reviving a stalled deal withinternational partners where it will curb its nuclear ambitions in returnfor an easing of sanctions.
When it first intervened in Yemen link onMarch 26, 2015, the Saudi-led coalition was made up of nine countries.
Today, it is largely just Saudi Arabialink, to a lesser extent, theUnited Arab Emirates, which says it has withdrawn troops from Yemenlink but remains an influential partner.
The coalition’s intervention has stopped the Huthis’ advances in the southand east of the country but has been unable to push them out of the north,including the capital Sanaa.
“Militarily, the war is now at stalemate,” Elisabeth Kendall, a researcherat Oxford University, told AFP this week, adding that Saudi Arabialink “may at this point be keen toextract itself” from Yemen link.
“But it needs to be able to position any withdrawal as a win and to ensurethat it is not left with a Huthi-controlled enemy state on its southernborder,” she said. -APP/AFP
