Faint peace hope

Yemen’s Houthi militia warned yesterday they could launch attacks against the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The threat came as the United Nations was trying to salvage a truce deal in Yemen, seen as crucial to diplomatic efforts to end the country’s four-year war.

The Iran-backed Houthis have targeted Saudi border towns and Riyadh with ballistic missiles. “We have aerial photographs and co-ordinates of dozens of headquarters, facilities and military bases of the enemy,” militant military spokesman Yahya Saree said in comments carried by the group’s Al Masirah channel. “The legitimate targets of our forces extend to the capital of Saudi Arabia and to the emirate of Abu Dhabi,” he said.

“We have manufactured advanced generations of attack aircraft, and new systems will soon be functional.” The militants triggered the conflict when they seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and attempted to occupy large parts of the country. An Arab Coalition intervened in support of the internationally recognised government in March 2015.

On Wednesday the UN Security Council met to discuss the stalled truce deal that had been agreed in Sweden in December between the Yemeni government and the Houthis. The deal – which called for a cease-fire, rebel pullback and mutual redeployment from Hodeidah, Yemen’s main Red Sea port controlled by the militants — offered the best hope in years of moving toward an end to the conflict. While the fighting in Hodeida has eased, redeployment efforts have stalled in recent weeks.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Wednesday he was still working to make the redeployment a “reality.” The World Health Organisation estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since 2015.