UN Envoy Meets Houthi Negotiators Amid Escalating Violence In Yemen

UN envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said Tuesday that he met Houthi negotiators in Muscat over the weekend as part of efforts to prevent further escalation in Yemen. The talks took place amid renewed fighting along the country's western coast between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-supported government forces. Grundberg said the meeting with the Houthi side focused on exploring ways to prevent the current escalation from worsening.

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press in Cairo, Grundberg said he met the Houthis' chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam in Muscat. He also held discussions in Riyadh with Yemen's internationally recognised government and regional powers, including Saudi Arabia. Grundberg described the latest escalation targeting Saudi Arabia as unprecedented and dramatic, while noting that regional instability and the involvement of countries including Iran and Yemen's other neighbours have influenced the conflict.

The renewed fighting has resulted in hundreds of deaths and displaced tens of thousands of people, according to figures cited by the UN and its agencies. The latest violence followed the Houthis' advance along the Red Sea coast earlier in September, including the reported capture of Mokha and several Red Sea islands. The developments extended their reach towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and brought an end to a 2022 ceasefire that had largely halted major fighting.

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The Houthis have also intensified attacks across the border into Saudi Arabia, including strikes targeting oil facilities, while restricting tanker movements through the Bab el-Mandeb. According to the UN, at least 838 people were killed and more than 3,640 wounded in the recent fighting. The UN migration agency said more than 145,000 people were displaced within Yemen, while over 3,000 others crossed the waters into Djibouti.

Grundberg said the latest escalation was more complicated than previous periods of violence in Yemen, with battle lines moving towards the Red Sea coast and creating risks for maritime corridors important to global trade. He also expressed concern over attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, saying the development should be a concern for the UN Security Council. According to Grundberg, the Yemen conflict has also become increasingly linked to wider conflicts across the Middle East.

The UN envoy said resolving the Yemen conflict would be challenging as the warring parties and their supporters assess the consequences of the latest escalation. He argued that the Yemen war should be separated from other regional conflicts to create conditions for a settlement defined by Yemenis. Grundberg recommended addressing the different conflicts individually through negotiations rather than allowing them to become further interconnected.

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