Omani.. holder of major concessions to the Houthis leaves Sanaa with more conditions
English - Sunday 13 June 2021 الساعة 11:46 am
Aden, NewsYemen:
On Friday, the special Omani delegation left the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to return to Muscat after nearly a week of talks with Houthi leaders, including the militia leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
This mediation coincided with remarkable regional and international moves aimed at ending the conflict in Yemen, accompanied by statements from more than one side calling for seizing the opportunity.
The members of the delegation did not make any statement about the results of the talks they held with the Houthis in Sana'a, at a time when political and diplomatic sources confirmed that the delegation had failed to make actual progress in terms of convincing the Houthis of a ceasefire in Yemen.
Contrary to the ambitious speculations that arose, following his arrival in Sana’a, accompanied by the head of the Houthi negotiating delegation, Muhammad Abdul Salam, the Omani delegation returned to Muscat with a detailed vision of the group’s size to stop the war, instead of responding to the initiatives currently being put forward.
Upon the delegation's arrival in Sana'a, there were expectations that a breakthrough had taken place in the Yemeni crisis wall, but it later emerged that Muscat had only succeeded in opening the Houthis' appetite to place more ambushes on Yemen's path to negotiations.
According to multiple sources, the royal delegation failed, in the task of convincing the Houthis, of the proposed ceasefire plan, despite the concessions it made, including opening Sanaa airport completely and without specifying the destinations of flights, as well as ending restrictions on the port of Hodeidah in western Yemen, in contravention of the "Stockholm" agreement. .
Although the Omani delegation arrived in Sanaa with more concessions to the Houthis, it left it with more Houthi conditions, conditions that the group wrapped up in what it called a "comprehensive peace vision."
The Houthi vision is based on stopping the air, land and sea military operations of the Arab coalition, and completely lifting restrictions on Yemeni ports and airports first, before any ceasefire agreement.
Despite the conflict over the results of the visit and its outputs, what is likely is the failure of the talks, due to the Houthi’s procrastinating interaction with the proposed peace initiatives, and the group’s resort to stipulating obtaining more privileges that would give them a political victory, as well as Iranian signals inciting to raise the ceiling of demands.
The sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department yesterday (Thursday) targeting an international smuggling network led by Saeed Al-Jamal, who resides in Iran, funds the Houthi militia, another indication of the Omani delegation's failure to persuade the group to accept the UN plan.
The Houthis escalated their military attacks, especially in Marib, and the intensity of their media discourse, in an additional indication of the failure of the talks led by the Sultanate of Oman to persuade the group's leader to agree to the terms of the UN ceasefire plan in Yemen as a single, non-selectable package.
