Yemen rebels halt missile attacks on Saudi, UAE

RIYADH

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have announced a halt to missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) upon a request from UN peace envoy Martin Griffiths.

“After our contacts with the UN envoy and his request to stop drone and missile strikes ... We announce our initiative ... to halt missile and drone strikes on the countries of aggression,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the rebel group’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said in a statement on Monday.

He said initiative came “to undermine any justification for continuing the aggression or blockade”.

The Houthi leader said the Shia group was ready to cease all military operations for reaching a “just and honorable peace” if the Saudi-led coalition was willing to.

There was no comment from the Saudi-led military coalition on the Houthi move.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies -- who accuse the Houthis of serving as proxies for Shia Iran -- launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait failed to end the destructive conflict.

The violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.