Journalists and diplomats had paid little attention to the war in Yemen until the scale of the humanitarian crisis, the military deadlock, and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 made it impossible to ignore.
Saudi Arabia is now under international pressure as head of a regional coalition that since March 2015 has tried to restore to power President Abdu Rabu Mansur Hadi, who was deposed by Houthi militias from the Zaydi Shia minority. With the war deadlocked, Saudi war crimes are now openly condemned and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) has lost much of his credibility. He has failed to present himself as a reformer, despite his hiring major PR firms including Publicis Groupe (the wealthy French philosopher Elisabeth Badinter is its largest shareholder) and the Glover Park Group, founded by former US Democratic party campaign officials.
The issue of western arms sales to the Saudis has moved up the agenda. In March 2018 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK’s Labour party, accused prime minister Theresa May of ‘collusion’ with war criminals. In the US, the Senate voted to halt military support for the coalition on 13 December 2018, and this has been endorsed by the House of Representatives, which has a Democrat majority. Spain, Germany and the European parliament announced arms embargoes and deal freezes. though they later tempered them after threats of litigation over breach of contract. It has become much harder for western powers to boast about selling arms to Saudi Arabia, or to the other major regional coalition force, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Given the support base of the Houthi movement, there can be no conflict resolution without full Houthi involvement in the political process
Last December, the opening of peace talks in Stockholm was a success for the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths of the UK. Three months earlier, talks (...)
