This step is intended to support negotiations.
The Saudi-led alliance plans to temporarily halt its “military operations” against Houthi rebels in Yemen from Wednesday. They want to achieve “favorable conditions for successful negotiations and an enabling environment for the holy month of Ramadan in order to create peace,” said a coalition statement, which the state news agency SPA published on Tuesday. .
The UN had already called for a ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month, Ramadan, which begins in early April. In mid-March, the Gulf States invited the warring parties to Riyadh for talks. The week-long deliberations, to which the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) invited about 500 participants, were due to begin on March 29. The Houthi rebels refused to participate. Previous diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have been unsuccessful.
In 2014, Houthi rebels invaded much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has carried out a military operation against the Houthis with other countries alongside the internationally recognized government. The Sunni kingdom sees them as allies of its Shiite enemy, Iran.
On Friday, rebels fired rockets into the kingdom, causing a fire at an oil facility near a Formula 1 track in Jeddah. The Saudi-led coalition responded with counterattacks on Houthi strongholds in Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah. The next day, the Houthis announced that they would stop attacking Saudi Arabia and offered a three-day unilateral ceasefire.
(APA/Reuters)