Saudi Arabia has proposed a ceasefire to the war in Yemen on Monday.
The ceasefire was suggested by Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and comes after a couple of rocky weeks in the battle that included missile strikes on Saudi Aramco's infrastructure.
The ceasefire will be executed, according to Prince Faisal, if the Houthis "announce their acceptance of it."
The plan includes reopening the Sanaa airport, which has been closed for six years.
The ceasefire proposal comes just hours after the Saudi-led coalition forces conducted airstrikes against Houthi military bases in Yemen's capital Sanaa. Those airstrikes followed an attack on an oil target in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. It also comes just weeks after President Joe Biden announced that the United States would no longer provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudis for the war in Yemen.
The U.S. will, however, continue to protect targets that are in Saudi Arabia, including Saudi Aramco's vital oil infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have been locked in a conflict since 2015. Many see it as a proxy war between the Saudis and the Iranian backers of the Yemeni rebel group, which overthrew the Saudi-affiliated Yemeni government and tried to assume power over the country.
Oil facilities in Saudi Arabia are a favorite target for the Houthis because of the Kingdom's reliance on oil revenues. The most notable attack that the Yemeni rebel group claimed responsibility for was the September 2019 attacks on Saudi Aramco's oil facilities that cut off 5 percent of daily global supply for weeks, sending oil prices soaring. Saudi Arabia and the United States have said that it was Iran-and not the Houthis-who was responsible for the attack.
Many ceasefire talks in past years have failed.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
Comments