UAE welcomes two-month truce in Yemen

A UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) soldier stops cars at a security checkpoint in Yemen on 4 September 2019 [SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP/Getty Images]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has welcomed the announcement of a U.N.-brokered truce in Yemen and the halt of all military operations there and on the Saudi-Yemeni border, the UAE’s state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, Reuters reports.

Earlier on Saturday, the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which has been fighting a coalition including the UAE in Yemen, also welcomed the truce and said it was committed to it as long as the other side abided by it, a spokesperson said on Twitter.

The nationwide truce is the first for years in Yemen’s seven-year conflict and will allow fuel imports into Houthi-held areas and some flights to operate from Sanaa airport, a United Nations envoy said on Friday.

The U.N.-brokered deal between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis is the most significant step yet towards ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and pushed millions into hunger. The last coordinated cessation of hostilities nationwide was during peace talks in 2016.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.

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