US president warned against hasty peace deal in Yemen

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s government and experts have warned the US administration against supporting a hasty peace settlement that does not include disarming the Houthi group.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak reminded US President Joe Biden of his previous commitments in 2012 when he was a vice president to support the Yemeni government during the early days of the transitional period. The foreign minister, in an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, said that the Iran-backed Houthis were responsible for the humanitarian crisis and the protracted war after their coup disrupted the country’s roadmap for peace and democracy in 2014.

“No one prays and struggles for an end to this war more than we do. But that doesn’t mean we will submit to fanatics who send Yemeni children to “indoctrination camps” and whose motto proclaims “Death to America” and “Curse on the Jews,” the foreign minister said, expressing the government’s concerns about the Biden’s reversal of terrorism charges against the Houthis. 

“We seek a role in governance for all Yemenis. But getting there will require sustained US pressure on the Houthis and their enablers. We worry about that commitment given the administration’s decision to revoke its designation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization,” he said. “We need a realistic and robust peace plan for Yemen, backed by the full force of American diplomacy. We welcome the new US special envoy to Yemen, Timothy Lenderking, and we commit to working for a political solution.”

The minister criticized members of the US congress who focused their criticism on the Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government and ignored Houthi crimes against Yemenis and their disruption of peace efforts and resistance to repairing the floating Safer tanker in the Red Sea. 

“They have launched drones and ballistic missiles at neighboring countries, and have coordinated with US-designated terrorist groups such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. Last week we learned they are still obstructing international efforts to salvage the FSO Safer oil tanker and avert an environmental catastrophe.”

Meanwhile, Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a Yemeni conflict analyst and a non-resident scholar at the US-based Middle East Institute, has warned Biden against pushing for a hasty peace settlement that would leave the Houthis armed. 

“A political settlement under the current circumstances might be a quick win for American and Western diplomacy,” she said in a paper published by the institute on Tuesday. “But it will most likely reinforce the current power dynamics and lock Yemen into a cycle of perpetual war, bringing 30 million Yemenis closer to famine and pushing the country farther away from peace.”

Nadwa argues that US pressure on the Arab coalition or Yemeni government to reach a deal with the Houthis would not put an end to the war or alleviate the humanitarian crisis since the conflict is complex and also because the US is unable to exert the same pressure on the Houthis to abide by any deal. 

“While the Biden administration can successfully put pressure on the Saudi-led coalition and the Yemeni government, it does not have the same leverage on the Houthis, who currently have the upper hand militarily,” she said.

Striking a deal with the heavily armed and powerful Houthi group, Nadwa warned, would encourage them to violate the truce and attack their opponents. 

“A political settlement, therefore, risks tipping the military balance in favor of the Houthis, who have failed to demonstrate any commitment to cease-fires in the past.” 

Citing the current Houthi offensive on the city of Marib, Nadwa said that Biden’s removal of the Houthis from the terrorism list had sent the wrong message to the rebels and pushed them into resuming military operations. 

“Indeed, the very next day after Biden’s decision to revoke the FTO designation, the Houthis mobilized their forces and launched a renewed offensive to seize the oil-rich city of Marib as well as (make) cross-border drone attacks against Saudi Arabia,” she said.