SANA’A (Al Jazeera) – The prospects of a renewed truce in Yemen have grown, according to the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, as regional and international diplomatic activity to end the country’s eight-year conflict intensifies.
Hans Grundberg, addressing a UN Security Council briefing, more than three months after an initial truce pact expired, said there had been “a potential step change” in the conflict’s trajectory, though the situation remained “complex and fluid”.
Grundberg, a Swedish diplomat who has served in his position since 2021, urged the warring parties to work towards “a shared vision” with concrete steps to restore peace to the Arab world’s poorest nation.
A UN-backed truce initially took effect in April 2022 and raised hopes for a longer pause in fighting, but it ended on October 2 after just six months.
Along with a stop to the fighting, last year’s truce deal allowed some fuel shipments into Hudaydah port and commercial flights from Sana’a, but it did not lift a partial blockade on the central city of Taiz.
Despite the absence of a truce extension, fighting has not escalated.
“The overall military situation in Yemen has remained stable,” Grundberg told the UNSC. “There has been no major escalation nor changes in the disposition on the front lines.”
“However we continue to see some military activity in particular along the front lines … these military activities have regrettably, also resulted in civilian casualties.”
The UN is now pushing for an extended and broader deal encompassing a mechanism to pay public sector wages.
Grundberg advised against a “piecemeal approach” focused on individual needs, saying talks on short-term steps should be part of a broader approach towards a sustainable resolution of a multifaceted conflict in which several parties are vying for power.
The UN envoy said “escalatory political and economic measures” could reignite violence.
Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and other Western states, launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015.
The objective was to crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement, 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.