About two weeks before the end of the first extension of the fragile Yemeni truce, legitimate pro-government circles are frustrated by the failure to open the crossings between the contact lines and to end the siege around the city of Taiz, as UN Envoy Hans Grundberg has so far been unable to persuade the Houthi militias to agree to his proposal.
While Yemen’s Presidential Command Council faces popular pressures that may prevent it from agreeing to extend the truce for a second time after Aug.2, Grundberg is counting on European and American support to the extension, even if he did not reach an agreement with the Houthis over ending the siege of Taiz.
Grundberg did not hide his disappointment, too, at the Houthis’ rejection of his updated proposal to open crossings. However, he believes that the existing truce, especially with regard to the cease-fire, should not be neglected, in order to launch simultaneous discussions on security and economic files, as he stated in his last briefing to the Security Council.
Several politicians, who spoke with Asharq Al-Awsat, believe that a new truce extension will be approved, but stress that the priority will be on ending the seven-year siege imposed on Taiz, before engaging in any discussions on other files.
The Undersecretary of the Yemeni Ministry of Justice in the legitimate government, Faisal Al-Majidi, noted that the United Nations, the US and the international community were not exerting enough pressure on the Houthis to make them open the crossings and end the siege.
Al-Majidi admitted that only few options remained for the Leadership Council, but at the same time, he stressed that US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia would bear some fruits, mainly that he wanted to use the Yemeni file in the mid-term elections on Nov. 8 and would press for a renewal of the truce.
For his part, Yemeni political analyst Mohammad Al-Mikhlafi pointed to an “escalating international mood that seeks to end the war in Yemen in any way.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “On the internal level, the armistice was a twofold need; But the Houthis’ failure to show any signs of goodwill, and their refusal to open roads to Taiz governorate… may contribute in one way or another to allowing the Presidential Council to act, without yielding to pressures from the UN envoy and those behind him.”
Political Researcher Dr. Faris Al-Bayl, for his part, warned that the truce and the Taiz crossings would consume the efforts of the UN envoy for years, just as Hodeidah and its ports have hampered the task of his predecessor, Martin Griffiths, without achieving any peace in Yemen.
