Signs of peace in the unwinnable war

The rising political cost for foreign powers in Yemen’s brutal conflict could usher in an end to the fighting that has destroyed a nation, writes Patrick Cockburn

A building in Sana’a destroyed by a Saudi-led airstrike (Getty)

A Saudi tugboat towing a South Korean drilling rig and a sand dredger were hijacked this month by armed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and taken to a nearby Yemeni port. The Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, denounced the seizure as “a terrorist operation”. The Houthis, in control of most of north and central Yemen, said that they were checking the vessels in case they belonged to a hostile state.

Given that Saudi bombing has killed at least 8,000 Yemenis in the past four years and the Houthis’ claim they’ve carried out devastating drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil facilities, the outlook for the three vessels and their crews looked potentially grim. But after a few days they were released. This may be one small sign that discussions between the Saudis and Houthis about de-escalating the Yemen war may be getting somewhere.

Raiman al-Hamdani, a Yemeni expert at the European Council for Foreign Relations, says cautiously that “there is a better chance now for a peace settlement” than previously because all the players in Yemen have an interest in, at least, talking about peace.