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Saudi, Omani envoys hold peace talks with Houthi leaders in Sanaa
Updated 11:24, 10-Apr-2023
CGTN
A handout picture, released by the Houthi-affiliated branch of the Yemeni News Agency SABA on April 9, 2023, shows the Houthi group's political leader Mahdi al-Mashat (C) meeting with delegations from Saudi Arabia and Oman in Sanaa. /CFP
A handout picture, released by the Houthi-affiliated branch of the Yemeni News Agency SABA on April 9, 2023, shows the Houthi group's political leader Mahdi al-Mashat (C) meeting with delegations from Saudi Arabia and Oman in Sanaa. /CFP

A handout picture, released by the Houthi-affiliated branch of the Yemeni News Agency SABA on April 9, 2023, shows the Houthi group's political leader Mahdi al-Mashat (C) meeting with delegations from Saudi Arabia and Oman in Sanaa. /CFP

Saudi and Omani delegations held talks with Houthi officials in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday, Houthi-run media said, as Riyadh seeks a permanent ceasefire to end its military involvement in the country's long-running war.

The visit indicates progress in the Oman-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa, which run in parallel to United Nations peace efforts. Oman, which shares borders with Yemen, has been trying for years to bridge differences between Yemen's warring parties, and more broadly between Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The envoys, who landed late on Saturday, met with the head of Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, in Sanaa's presidential palace, Houthi news agency SABA reported.

Al-Mashat reiterated the group's position that it seeks an "honorable peace" and that the Yemeni people aspire to "freedom and independence," SABA said.

Both sides will negotiate ending hostilities and the lifting of a Saudi-led blockade on Yemeni ports, it added.

The delegations' arrival in Sanaa come roughly a month after China helped broker a surprise rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which is said to back the Houthi group. That deal has fueled hopes for progress on ending the Yemen conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and triggered what the UN called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The top Saudi and Iranian diplomats met again in Beijing on Thursday, pledging to work together to bring "security and stability" to a turbulent region.

The Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, triggering the conflict with the internationally recognized government which has been backed for eight years by a military coalition led by Riyadh.

A truce announced roughly a year ago has significantly reduced active hostilities within Yemen, and is still largely respected even though it officially expired in October.

The Saudis and Houthis had agreed in principle on a six-month truce to pave the way for three months of talks on establishing a two-year "transition" for the war-torn country, AFP said on Saturday citing a Yemeni government source.

The deal is expected to fulfill key Houthi goals, including paying salaries of civil servants in Houthi-controlled areas and lifting operational restrictions on Houthi-controlled airports and ports.

The apparent diplomatic momentum was a sign that the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement was bearing fruit, Saudi analyst Hesham Alghannam told AFP.

A Houthi official said on Saturday the group had received 13 detainees released by Saudi Arabia in exchange for a Saudi detainee freed earlier, ahead of a wider prisoner exchange agreed by the warring sides.

At talks in Switzerland last month attended by the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Yemeni government and the Houthis agreed to free 887 detainees. The 13 prisoners are part of that agreement, Houthi official Abdul Qader al-Mortada said.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

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