Yemen is on the verge of full-fledged war, a top U.N. envoy says, but the warring sides spoke this week about how to ease their economic standoff.
What's new: Hans Grundberg, the United Nations envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the country's decade-long civil war between the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels is expanding into a regional conflict – and Saudi-Iranian proxy war – and the "escalation in the economic sphere has been translating into public threats to return to full-fledged war."
What's next: Despite the bleak forecast, some hope is emerging after months of efforts. With the help of Saudi diplomats, he said, the warring sides will try to avert disaster for the Central Bank of Yemen and Yemenia Airways. Among the issues to be discussed are calls for a unified central bank and currency plus monetary policy coordination.
"While I am concerned about the overall trajectory that Yemen is on," said Grundberg, "I am nonetheless encouraged that last night, the parties informed me that they have agreed on a path to de-escalate a cycle of measures and countermeasures which had sought to tighten their grip on the banking and transport sectors."
What’s important: As the Arab world’s poorest country, Yemen suffers one of the world's most dire humanitarian crises. The regional conflict includes new Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways and the first confirmed Israeli air strikes on Yemen's Hodeida port in retaliation for Houthi drone and missile attacks on Tel Aviv.
Who’s involved: Along with the Saudis and Iranians, and the U.N., U.S. and U.K. airstrikes on Houthi targets continue. Saudi Arabia struggled to hold together the military coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis. The United Arab Emirates, part of the coalition, supported some separatists battling the Saudi-backed government for control of the south.
U.N. human rights investigators identified possible war crimes carried out by all sides. In recent weeks, the de facto Houthi authorities detained 13 U.N. staff from Grundberg's office, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. Development Program, UNICEF, World Food Program, World Health Organization and UNESCO.
What's happening now: "We risk a return to full-scale war and all the predictable human suffering and regional implications this entails," Grundberg said. "We have a common interest and responsibility to avoid this." The fighting decreased since a six-month truce in 2022, but he said the tensions are escalating. "It is alarming that there are no signs of de-escalation, let alone a solution. These latest developments show the real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation."
