![]() ![]() insistence on transitioning the talks over to the United Nations and making sure the deal is “comprehensive” and inclusive” before peace is reached. support for Saudi Arabia’s defense against threats from Yemen or elsewhere and emphasized the need for forging broader regional integration and stability through a combination of diplomacy, deterrence, and new investment and infrastructure.” This saber rattling and talk of new security guarantees came just as hundreds of prisoners were being exchanged, and the world was celebrating the steps toward peace.Ī State Department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said that I was reading too much into the U.S. Axios reported at the time that the Brett McGurk, a top envoy to the region, and Lenderking “underscored the U.S. diplomats rushed to Saudi Arabia to tap the brakes. In mid-April, as news of the Saudi-Iran-Houthi peace deal emerged, U.S. has used with Afghanistan, demanding that in order for us to release the country’s foreign currency reserves, the Taliban must empower our proxies there (the warlords the Taliban already paid off to hand the country over to them). keeps pressing for an “inclusive government” - the same phrase the U.S. and Saudi-backed proxies, which operated largely out of luxury hotel rooms in Riyadh, no real position in the new Yemeni government. But acknowledging that would give the U.S. Much of that considerable division has been resolved by the Houthis winning the war. In fact, Lenderking is attempting to wish “considerable division” back into Yemeni society. I think there is still a considerable amount of distrust among the parties, and there’s considerable division within Yemen’s society itself.” “I think there is great challenges ahead. “I don’t think we’re near the finish line yet,” Lenderking went on. ![]() “A political process will take time and likely face numerous setbacks, but I continue to be optimistic that we have a real opportunity ahead of us for peace.” That sounds nice, but decoding the diplomacy, the most important remark there is the prediction of “numerous setbacks” and the confidence that we “should not” expect “a durable resolution.” “I don’t expect a durable resolution - and we should not - to the nearly eight-year conflict in Yemen to happen overnight,” he said recently in the region. special envoy for Yemen, has been offering up particularly pessimistic comments on negotiations. has one of its largest bases, in Djibouti, across the strait.) (The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden link the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean at the southwestern corner of Yemen, an area so geopolitically important to the flow of oil and international traffic that the U.S. proxies better terms when it comes to control of the strategically positioned Yemeni coastline. Triggering a resumption of hostilities would unleash yet another Saudi-led bombing campaign that could win U.S. seems to be attempting to slow-walk and blow up the peace talks. appears very much not to want the war to end our proxies have been thumped on the battlefield and are in a poor negotiating position as a result. A ceasefire has held for more than a year, and peace talks are advancing with real momentum, including prisoner exchanges and other positive expressions of diplomacy. appears to want to put the war behind them. But in the case of the war in Yemen, the war really is over if we want.Įverybody else directly or indirectly involved - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Houthis, China, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, etc. ![]() I’ve always thought of the famous John Lennon refrain, “War is over, if you want it,” as mostly a thought experiment meant to shake us out of the learned helplessness that can lead to forever wars. Yemeni tribal figures from Abyan province wait to get their military commander freed from prison in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 30, 2023. ![]()
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