Yemen’s foreign minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak has said his government will work with President Joe Biden’s administration to end the war in the peninsula. However, he stressed on the fact that the Houthi rebels and their Iranian backers remain the main obstacle to peace.
The Saudi military is involved in the war in Yemen apparently to fight the Houthi rebels. Yemen’s foreign minister’s statement on the rebels seems to be in defense of Saudi’s involvement in the war raging in the Arab world’s poorest country.
On Feb 4, US President Biden announced that the U.S. was ending support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. “This war has to end,” Biden told diplomats in his first visit to the State Department as president, saying the conflict had created a “humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.” (AP) Ending US support for the war in Yemen is one of a series of steps Biden laid out as course correction for U.S. foreign policy.
Responding to the US move, Bin Mubarak told The Associated Press “We will deal positively with the attitude of the new U.S. administration, which wants to end the conflict in Yemen”. “This has always been our goal since the war started, and we dealt positively with all U.N. initiatives in the past, but we are always faced with the intransigence of Houthi militias and Iran’s agenda in the region,” he said.
The Yemeni government also welcomed Biden’s decision to appoint Timothy Lenderking as special envoy to Yemen, hailing it as another “important step” attesting to the U.S. commitment to end the war, according to a statement from Yemen’s state-run SABA news agency.
On the same day, Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdel Salam tweeted that peace would not be achieved until “the aggression was brought to a halt and the siege was lifted.”
Yemen’s war began in September 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and began a march south to seize the entire country. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other countries, entered the war alongside Yemen’s internationally recognized government in March 2015. The five-year conflict has killed nearly 130,000 people, including over 13,000 civilians, and resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Biden announced an end to “relevant” U.S. arms sales but gave no immediate details on what that would mean. The administration has said it was pausing billions of dollars in arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s main partner in its Yemeni offensive. The U.S. has sold bombs and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia that the kingdom later used in strikes on Yemen killing civilians.
Biden also called for a cease-fire, an opening of humanitarian channels to allow more delivery of aid, and a return to long-stalled peace talks.
Saudi Arabia which was close to Trump and his administration has given a cautionary response. Saudi Arabia said on Friday President Joe Biden’s speech on Yeman reiterated US commitment to work with “friends and allies” to resolve conflicts. Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir told state TV Ekhbariya the Kingdom was looking forward to working with the US administration.
He added “Our countries have spilled blood in the liberation of Kuwait and in combating Al-Qaeda, including in Yemen, and Daesh in Syria. We look forward to working with our friends in the US to end conflicts and confront challenges, as we have for over seven decades.”
It can be recalled that Biden as a Presidential candidate had targeted Trump for ignoring alleged human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and had blasted the kingdom’s current rulers. He had promised to distance his administration from Saudi leaders who were seen as favorable to Trump.
However, the Biden administration has also said it will help Saudi Arabia boost its defenses against outside attacks, as part of maintaining key security, counter-terrorism and military ties.
Bhagyashree Gupta 
Aayush Pal 
Viswapramod C