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Regional, Int’l Efforts Seek to Ensure Success of Yemen Peace Roadmap

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak during his meeting with the UN envoy to Yemen (Saba)
Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak during his meeting with the UN envoy to Yemen (Saba)
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Regional, Int’l Efforts Seek to Ensure Success of Yemen Peace Roadmap

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak during his meeting with the UN envoy to Yemen (Saba)
Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak during his meeting with the UN envoy to Yemen (Saba)

Saudi-led peace efforts in Yemen revolve around the first peace roadmap after the Yemeni legitimacy and Houthis made their amendments and observations, announced a senior Yemeni source on Thursday.

The source confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council reviewed the peace roadmap draft about a month ago and made some amendments to it.

He added that discussions addressed the roadmap presented to Saudi officials last Ramadan, noting that they introduced it a month ago to the Council which rejected the submitted formula. The draft was later amended.

When asked about an imminent agreement, a Gulf source familiar with the deliberations said something still needed to be done.

According to the Yemeni source, Houthis responded with the amendments they accepted regarding the tax and customs mechanism in Hodeidah port and salaries disbursement following the peace roadmap's first version.

On Tuesday, Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak met with the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and discussed the recent peace efforts.

Meanwhile, the US State Department announced that the Special Envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, is traveling to the Gulf this week to advance ongoing UN-led peace efforts in Yemen and support regional coordination to reach a durable end to the conflict.

The source reported that the Leadership Council will meet on Wednesday or Thursday to discuss the Houthi response and the ideas proposed to move forward in the peace process.

Last October, Vice Chairman of the Council Major General Faraj al-Bahsani clarified that the Oman and Saudi-led peace efforts continue in full swing, indicating that the roadmap enjoys regional and international support.

Bahsani revealed that the Leadership Council approved the names of the negotiating delegation that will meet with the Houthis in any future talks, expressing his optimism for achieving progress in the peace process.

The basic peace roadmap includes changing the Yemeni government or making a ministerial reshuffle as agreed upon, according to the source.

Asked whether a peace agreement and a long-term truce will be announced, the source said it depends on the discussions and the Houthi response regarding the peace roadmap and its provisions.

He added: "The matter depends on the upcoming meetings and the Houthis' response...

The state is ready and has submitted its observations on the presented formula, said the source, indicating that he believes Houthis would not agree to everything proposed and could make concessions on some issues and reject others.

The source noted that the two parties will sign a deal if all matters are agreed upon. However, it could take some time.

Most Presidential Leadership Council members have already arrived in Riyadh for the meeting.

Observers believe the recent calls by US Senators to reclassify the Houthis as a terrorist group may put pressure on it.

Last September, a Houthi delegation visited Riyadh and held five-day discussions with an Omani delegation.

The head of the Houthi delegation, Mohammad Abdulsalam, told Asharq Al-Awsat that they are working on achieving peace as the first option.

Saudi Arabia confirmed that it had invited a Sanaa delegation for a visit to complete the meetings and discussions based on the Saudi initiative announced in March 2021.

The visit also highlights Saudi and Omani efforts to reach a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Yemen and a sustainable political solution acceptable to all Yemeni parties.

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Arab World

Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.