While Saudi Arabia hopes it can maintain a firewall between the Yemen peace talks and the Houthi rebels attacks on Israel, sources in London and Washington saying there is pressure to re-designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, which would threaten any deal.
There are also reports that the US is willing to launch an attack on Houthi military sites in and around Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, as well as its port operations room, unless the ship seized last week , the Galaxy Leader, is released.
Last week the Saudis summoned the official UN-recognized Yemen government for further talks in Riyadh to present a revised roadmap that would lead to foreign forces, including those from Saudi Arabia, leaving in six months. It includes a budget deal under which large sums would be transferred from the oil-rich south to the impoverished north, which is dominated by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
Critics of the deal claim it empowers the Houthis, but Saudi Arabia, eager to exit what has proved to be an ill-judged military intervention in Yemen’s civil war, wants to end its engagement as quickly as possible.
Saudi efforts to strike a peace deal with the Houthis are aggravated by parts of the PLC opposing its terms on the grounds that the deal would not retain enough funds in the country’s south. The deal would lead to the country’s two central banks and currencies being unified. A military buffer zone between north Yemen and Saudi Arabia would also be established. Discussions on a separate state for the south would be held later.
The US may also reactivate the Combined Maritime Forces to protect commercial ships in international trade lanes in the Red Sea.
On Monday, the commander of the Houthi coastal defence forces, Muhammad al-Qadiri, warned against “any foreign interference in Yemen’s territorial waters or islands”, saying there would be “an appropriate response to any step of this kind”.