SNA (Birmingham) — Now that Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations following their talks in Beijing earlier this month, hopes have emerged that the eight-year civil war in Yemen may finally be coming to an end. However, there is yet to be any specific plan to include the troubled South Arabian nation within bilateral peace negotiations.

The Iran-Saudi reconciliation seems to be making progress since it was first announced. Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, released a press statement on Monday announcing that embassies will reopen in both Tehran and Riyadh by May 10, six years after they were closed.

Abdollahian tweeted, “I received congratulation calls from the prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, as well as the foreign ministers of Iraq and Oman, on the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to normalize ties.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman also publicly invited Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to visit the kingdom, and this event appears to be going forward in the coming weeks.

The Iran-Saudi agreement came as a surprise to the international community, in part because the bilateral confrontation has endured for years, and partly because China had never before played such a major diplomatic role in the region.

The theoretical implications for Yemen are very promising. While the roots of the civil war relate to domestic divisions, the conflict was greatly intensified by Iran’s backing of the Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia’s military invasion of the country in support of the internationally-recognized government, which is currently based in Aden.

After the agreement was reached, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg met on March 15 with Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Khaji to discuss the implications of the new regional reality. According to the press release, Khaji explained that “the Islamic Republic of Iran believed from the very beginning that the Yemen crisis had no military solution and that the crisis had to be resolved through peaceful means and political discussions.”

The Yemen Civil War began in 2014 and claimed over 150,000 lives by the end of 2021, according to a United Nations report.

In April 2022, a truce was negotiated, and although it formally expired last October, major fighting has yet to resume.

Grundberg told the UN Security Council this month that “the overall military situation in Yemen continues to be relatively stable, but this is fragile.”

Looking forward to a possible resolution of the conflict, the Houthi rebels, for their part, have made their demands clear. They want the lifting of government restrictions on their use of Sanaa International Airport and Hodeidah port, as well as funding for reconstruction and other services.

More Than Two Parties

Another challenge to resolving the civil war in Yemen is that, while the Houthis and the government in Aden are the largest parties in the conflict, there are other groups which are also involved in fighting, in particular the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which supports a policy of redividing Yemen into north and south, as had been the case between 1967-1990. They are afraid of not having their own views represented as future political frameworks are put into place.

Amir al-Bidh, who is the foreign affairs chief for this group, issued a statement at mid-month complaining that the STC has been provided “no clue and no briefing” about the Iran-Saudi deal. He added that “we hear a deal is coming, but we do not hear it from any official channel.”

It is also clear that the STC leadership is far from persuaded that the Houthi rebels are ready for a peace agreement. For example, STC negotiator Nasser al-Khubaji blasted the Houthis as recently as last week, declaring that “the terrorist Houthi militia gives a deaf ear to all regional and international calls for peace and wastes given opportunities to engage in the comprehensive political process and bring about peace efforts.”

He was responding to reports that Houthis had launched an offensive in Marib Province in which at least ten soldiers were killed, according to the Yemeni military.

UN envoy Grundberg has acknowledged the need for all parties to be involved: “We urgently need to build on what was achieved by the truce and work toward a nationwide ceasefire, and an inclusive political settlement to end the conflict in Yemen.”

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