The Saudi-based Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is considering inviting Ansarullah and other Yemeni parties for consultations in Riyadh this month, as part of an initiative aimed at backing UN-led peace efforts, two Gulf officials told Reuters.
Formal invitations would be sent within days for the talks on military, political and economic aspects of the war between the Ansarullah, also known as “Houthis” and a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, the officials, who declined to be named ahead of an official announcement this week, said.
They said Ansarullah officials would be “guests” of GCC Secretary General Nayef Falah Mubarak al-Hajraf at the body’s Riyadh headquarters, and would have his security guarantees if the group accepted the invitation for the talks, which are planned from March 29 to April 7.
It was not immediately clear whether Ansarullah officials would agree to travel to Saudi Arabia.
GCC members Oman, where some Ansarullah officials are based, and Kuwait, which hosted previous peace talks in 2015, would be a more neutral ground for such consultations.
The officials said that the Saudi-backed Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who still officially claims the title of President of Yemen and is currently based in Riyadh, has agreed to the talks with Ansarullah.
Riyadh has struggled to extricate itself from the costly and unpopular war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. Despite the bloody humanitarian cost, Saudi Arabia and its coalition has been wholly incapable of military winning the conflict, instead steadily losing territory to the Ansarullah-led National Salvation Government in Sana’a.
Source: Reuters
