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Saudi Arabia, Yemen Houthis hold talks in Sana'a

  • Märkte: Condensate, Crude oil, Oil products
  • 11.04.23

A Saudi Arabian delegation met with the Houthi movement in Yemen's capital Sana'a, part of an effort to end a war that recently entered its ninth year. The move comes after a Chinese-brokered fledgling detente between Riyadh and Iran, which backs the Houthis.

The Saudi delegation, headed by ambassador to Yemen Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Jaber, met with the head of the Houthi supreme political council Mahdi al-Mashat, according to the Houthi-run Saba news agency. An Omani delegation joined the talks, Saba said.

"The Omani and Saudi delegations will discuss with [al-Mashat] lifting the siege with all its repercussions, stopping the aggression, and restoring all the rightful rights of the Yemeni people, including the payment of salaries of all state employees from oil and gas revenues," Saba reported, citing a source in the Houthi supreme political council.

Saudi's Al-Jaber said the talks "are meant to stabilise the truce and cease-fire, support the prisoner exchange process and explore venues of dialogue between Yemeni components to reach a sustainable, comprehensive political solution."

The UN brokered a two-month truce in April 2022 — the first since 2016. This was extended twice, but in October it hit a wall with the Houthi's demanding salaries for civilian, military and security employees in the territories they control be paid using government revenues.

Yemen's minister of foreign affairs for the internationally-recognised government, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, said last week there were "positive signals" that a cease-fire deal would be announced, along with addressing other humanitarian and economic issues.

"The [regional] circumstances are different," he told Egyptian news channel Al-Qahera in an interview aired on 7 April. "It pushed towards achieving a solution." But he said there are "many fundamental issues" that the warring sides need to address before reaching a settlement.

The war has been raging since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sana'a and surrounding areas, forcing the government to flee the country. Since then, a Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting the Houthis on the government's behalf and providing support in the shape of economic grants and shipments of oil products.

Saudi products arrive in Yemen

Yemen received a fourth batch of petroleum products from Saudi Arabia, consisting of 150,000t of diesel and 100,000t of fuel oil, at its port of Aden, the Saudi state-owned SPA news agency said on 9 April.

This batch will be used to operate around 70 power generation plants in Yemen, which is battling severe fuel shortages. The deliveries are part of Riyadh's $4.2bn grant for Yemen, announced in 2021. A third batch of products, consisting of 5,500t of diesel and 13,000t of fuel oil, arrived in Yemen in March.


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