Global Geopolitical Series: Is Yemen war coming to an end?

The four-year-long bloody war in Yemen, which is the poorest Arab country in the region but an important geopolitical location near the Gulf of Aden, through which billions of dollars’ worth of goods pass through every year may finally be coming to an end. Over the past four years, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been fighting an international coalition backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The fighting has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the region.

The United States has finally started weighing on the fighting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling for an end to violence at a time, when Saudi Arabia is under immense international pressure over the killings of Jamal Khashoggi, a renowned Washington Post journalist of Saudi-origin, who was also a permanent resident of the United States at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The pressure has also been on countries for quite some time now to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the Yemen humanitarian crisis but with Khashoggi’s killing many countries like Canada, Germany has halted selling their weapons to the Kingdom.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Iran backed Houthi rebels to end their missile attacks and Saudi-UAE alliance to end its airstrikes. He added that the UN-led peace negotiations could begin as early as next month. The United States helps the coalition by refueling its jets and providing training in targeting. Pompeo said last month that he had certified to the US Congress that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were working to reduce civilian casualties in Yemen.

The U.S. defense secretary Jim Mattis has also called on the violence to end by calling both sides to stop their attacks and voiced support a UN-led peace negotiation.

With the United States raising its voice for negotiations, the Yemen war could finally come to an end by next month with a truce agreement.