On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed with Gulf states and the UN on a plan to resume peace talks in Yemen with a view to forming a unity government after 18 months of fighting.
Although, the Yemeni government welcomed Kerry’s new roadmap, the Houthis rejected Kerry’s call for the transfer of the group’s ballistic missiles, and at the same time Gulf states particularly, Saudi Arabia had been “extremely careful and cautious”, according to Anadolu Agency.
Speaking at a press conference with his Americain counterpart, John Kerry, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir said, “The Kingdom had no interest, no claims in Yemen”.
Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, played down the importance of this initiative, posting on his Twitter account: ”Kerry’s new plan for Yemen is a waste of time and the plan is the same as Ahmed Ould Cheikh proposed and was rejected by Houthis ”
الخطة التي يتحدث عنها كيري لا تختلف كثيرا عن مبادرة ولد الشيخ الاممية والتي رفضها الحوثيين … فلم تضييع الوقت بمفاوضات جديدة ؟
— جمال خاشقجي (@JKhashoggi) August 25, 2016
He also told “Aljazeera” TV channel that Kerry’s initiative is Obama’s plan and not related to the Saudi administration or the Yemeni government.
“Kerry’s plan represents a motivation for Houthis to keep a portion of the power and weapons and commit more massacres “, Abdul Aziz Almajidy, a Yemeni journalist, reacted to Kerry’s initiative on Twitter.
تصريحات كيري ستمثل غطاءا ودافعا قوياللميليشيا لارتكاب المزيد من المجازر.
مهما فعلت، فهي موعودة أمريكيا بالاحتفاظ بقسم من السلطة والسلاح!— عبدالعزيز المجيدي (@azizpress7) August 25, 2016
According to Kerry’s peace initiative, Houthis must cease shelling across the border with Saudi Arabia, pull back from the capital Sana’a which they took control of two years ago, cede their weapons and enter into a unity government with their domestic foes”,
But, Jamal Khashoggi outlined in a recent column “Riyadh has saved Yemen by launching operation ‘Hazm Storm’ in March 2015, and perhaps the time has come again for a similar process, and I think it will not be far away”.
Furthermore, Professor of Political Science in UAE Abdulkhaleq Abdulla reacted to Kerry’s new plan, saying on Twitter: ”UN official on human rights calls for an independent international investigation into war crimes in Yemen, let’s expect more international pressure.”
“It is not permitted to leave armed militias threaten the existence of the state in Yemen. This tampering should be ended; the legitimacy or the artillery”, said Dhahi Khalfan on Twitter, adding that Houthis want state and militias in the country and this can’t be happening.
