AL-MUKALLA (Dispatches) – Efforts to renew the UN-brokered truce and bring peace to Yemen have been dashed after Omani mediators left Sana’a without any reported progress.
The Omani mediators, who arrived in Sana’a last week, departed the city after meeting top Yemeni officials in the capital and hearing their requests for extending the ceasefire and participating in negotiations to end the conflict.
The government said that their leaders told the Omanis that they would not agree to extend the October ceasefire until the Saudi-backed mercenaries and militants pay public servants across the country, which would include their fighters, and share oil and gas revenues with them. They threatened to resume extensive military operations if their demands were not met.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, a chief negotiator for the Sana’a-based government, said: “Our troops on the ground have imposed new rules of engagement, and the other side should realize that we have entered a new phase and currently we have no commitment under the truce.”
He added that attacks on oil infrastructure in the southern regions would continue until earnings are shared and wages paid.
Abdulsalam went on to say that officials in Sana’a had enjoyed “fruitful” discussions with the Omanis.
The UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect on April 2, and was extended twice.
Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states, launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015
The objective was to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah group, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen, and reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to achieve any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.