Oman Sees Path to Peace between Saudis, Ansarullah
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Omani Foreign Minister Yousef Bin Alawi said he is optimistic that an agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah movement could be reached to end the Saudi-led in Yemen.
“There are consultations, there’s mediation and the desire to solve the conflict,” Bin Alawi told Oman’s state television after meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington Monday.
“Houthi leaders’ principle is to take the path of peace, security and stability, and I believe they will positively cooperate,” he said.
Pompeo and Bin Alawi agreed that only a political solution will bring an end to the aggression and ensure peace, prosperity and security in Yemen, the US State Department said in a statement.
The Saudi airstrikes continue even as Yemen’s voluntary bid to cease missile and drone strikes against the kingdom has held for two months.
In September, the president of the Supreme Political Council in the Yemeni capital, Mahdi al-Mashat, said that Yemen’s armed forces, led by the Houthi Ansarullah movement, would conditionally stop drone and missile attacks as part of a peace gesture.
Nearly a week later, however, al-Mashat expressed regret that the Saudis "irresponsibly" continued to pound various parts of Yemen.
The Yemeni peace proposal came almost a week after Houthis carried out a devastating retaliatory attack on two Saudi oil facilities.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
An estimated two million children in Yemen are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, including 360,000 under five years old, according to recent UNICEF reports.
