A photo taken on March 18, 2018 shows a Yemeni child looking at buildings that were damaged in an airstrike in the southern Yemeni city of Taez.
AHMAD AL-BASHA | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Monday proposed a new peace initiative that would kick off the end of the war in Yemen.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said Monday that the plan would include a nationwide ceasefire, reopen Sanaa airport and allow the import of fuel and food through the port of Hodeidah.
Yemen’s civil war intensified in 2014 when Houthi forces, who are in alliance with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took the nation’s capital.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have carried out attacks in Yemen against Houthis. The administration of former President Donald Trump had supported the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.
Trump vetoed a measure in 2019 aimed at ending U.S. military assistance and participation in Yemen. At the time, Trump said the Congress resolution was “unnecessary” and endangered “the lives of American citizens and brave members of the service, both today and in the future.”
Lawmakers who supported the measure criticized Saudi Arabia for a series of bombing campaigns that caused thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen.
Last month, President Joe Biden announced a halt to U.S. support for offensive operations in Yemen and appointed a new envoy to oversee the nation’s diplomatic mission to end the civil war there.
“This war must end,” Biden said during his first foreign policy speech as president. “We are ending all U.S. support for offensive operations in the Yemen war, including relevant arms sales.”
“At the same time, Saudi Arabia faces UAV missile and strike attacks and other threats from Iran-supplied forces in several countries,” Biden said. “We will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity and its people.”
The president approved Tim Lenderking, deputy deputy secretary of state for Iran, Iraq and multilateral regional affairs, to oversee the U.S. diplomatic mission to end the war in Yemen.
Biden’s policy of ending support for offensive operations will not extend to U.S. military action against the al-Qaeda affiliate in the region, known as AQAP.
Biden also stopped sales of precisely guided ammunition in Saudi Arabia to assess possible human rights abuses.
The United Nations has previously said that the ongoing armed conflict in Yemen has resulted in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The United States provided more than $ 630 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen during fiscal year 2020, according to figures provided by the state department.