{"id":2949,"date":"2019-01-11T22:24:03","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T22:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2019-01-17T00:44:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T00:44:37","slug":"houthis-only-a-political-solution-can-end-the-war-in-yemen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2019\/01\/11\/houthis-only-a-political-solution-can-end-the-war-in-yemen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Houthis: Only a political solution can end the war in Yemen (SET 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abdul Malik al-Ajri says the rebels want a land, sea and air blockade on Yemen to be lifted at upcoming talks in Sweden.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stockholm, Sweden <\/strong>– A senior Houthi leader says his group hopes upcoming peace talks in Sweden will end the war in Yemen and lead to an “inclusive political dialogue”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdul Malik al-Ajri told Al Jazeera that the Houthis are hoping to discuss a range of issues at the talks, including the drafting of a new constitution and the decentralisation of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are hoping these negotiations will help end the war,” al-Ajri said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We will be calling for the land, sea and air blockade imposed on Yemen [by Saudi Arabia and the UAE] to be lifted, and for restrictions on goods entering the country to be lifted.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting against the Houthis since March 2015, months after they toppled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UN, the planned “consultations”, which could start on either Wednesday or Thursday, will be attended by the main “parties to the conflict” – even as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who play a leading role in the war, and Iran, which supposedly backs the Houthis, are not invited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, all three countries, which have considerable leverage over the opposing sides, have said they support the UN’s initiative to end the war, al-Ajri said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Special UN Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffith, has been hoping to get both sides to agree to a “framework” that “establishes the principles and parameters for UN-led, inclusive Yemeni negotiations to end the war, and restart a political transition”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yemen is a small and simple country. It is culturally homogenous and there are no ethnic or cultural divisions,” al-Ajri said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We hope to engage in an inclusive political dialogue that will lead to a new transitional process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yemen\u2019s need for federalism is so that it can overcome one centre of power and the country\u2019s wealth can be distributed fairly among everyone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Modest expectations’<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

International pressure has mounted on Yemen’s warring parties to end the conflict, which has killed more than 56,000 people, according to a recent estimate, and left more than 22 million Yemenis needing humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one Western diplomatic source told Al Jazeera that it was best to have “modest expectations” heading into this first round of talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both sides neither have the willingness to end the fight and the suffering of the people nor the readiness to make significant concessions.<\/p>

MURAD ALAZZANY, PROFESSOR AT SANAA UNIVERSITY<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

“I will be happy if they both turn up, meet face to face for a bit, agree on the prisoner exchange, argue a lot but agree to meet again in a month or so,” the source said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier on Tuesday, Yemen’s government said it had agreed to a large-scale prisoner swap with the Houthis as part of a “confidence-building measure”, with reports suggesting as many as 2,000 pro-government forces could be exchanged for 1,500 Houthis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Houthi delegation arrived in Sweden late on Tuesday after leaving the Yemeni capital Sanaa in a Kuwaiti chartered plane, accompanied by the Kuwaiti ambassador to Yemen and Griffith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their arrival was confirmed by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom who wrote on Twitter that she expected the consultations to “take place soon”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Houthi official told Al Jazeera that the head of the Houthi negotiating team, Mohammad Abdul Salam, was expected to head to Stockholm on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a delegation from Yemen’s internationally recognised government was also expected to arrive in Sweden later in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upcoming round of talks will be the second attempt by the UN envoy to bring the rival sides to the negotiating table, just nearly three months after a previous round in September spectacularly collapsed when the Houthis refused to turn up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous talks also broke down in 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to yield a deal and delegates from the rebel movement were left stranded outside Yemen for three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Willingness to end the conflict’<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Murad Alazzany, a professor at Sanaa University, said Yemenis were not placing high expectations on the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Both sides neither have the willingness to end the fight and the suffering of the people nor the readiness to make significant concessions,” he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Instead, the decisions are being made and imposed by a much larger entity – in this case by the allied western powers led by the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war in Yemen has received considerable media attention since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western powers have expressed their anger over the killing and have withdrawn their support from the Saudi-UAE alliance in Yemen in an attempt to communicate their displeasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany and Norway have suspended arms exports to Saudi Arabia while the US has said it will stop refuelling the alliance’s warplanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Trump administration has refused to cancel a planned $110bn arms deal with Riyadh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the alliance has launched more than 18,000 air raids on Yemen since they joined the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals have been targeted, and the alliance has imposed a raft of punitive economic measures aimed at undermining the Houthis’ grip on power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UN, the humanitarian crisis plaguing the country means more than 12 million Yemenis will need food assistance next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abdul Malik al-Ajri says the rebels want a land, sea and air blockade on Yemen to be lifted at upcoming talks in Sweden. Stockholm, Sweden – A senior Houthi leader says his group hopes upcoming peace talks in Sweden will end the war in Yemen and lead to an “inclusive political dialogue”. Abdul Malik al-Ajri told Al Jazeera that the Houthis are hoping to discuss… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3023,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions\/3023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}