Houthi conditions: Will visit of Saudi-Omani delegation contribute to resolving Yemeni crisis?

Nora Bandari

Delegations from Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman visited the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on April 9 to hold talks with the Houthi militia, within the framework of the efforts led by the Sultanate of Oman to revive the peace process and reach a solution to the Yemeni crisis, which has entered its ninth year, in a manner that satisfies all parties to the conflict.

Omani-Saudi talks

The discussions of the Omani-Saudi delegation in Sanaa are expected to discuss a number of issues, most notably the cessation of hostilities, the complete lifting of the blockade on Yemeni ports, the payment of salaries of public servants from oil and gas revenues, and the necessary compensation to revive reconstruction efforts, in addition to putting forth a timeframe for the exit of all foreign forces from the country, according to what was announced by Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam.

Significance of the timing

This visit comes in conjunction with a number of events, the most prominent of which is the one-year passage of the UN ceasefire agreement that was signed in April 2022 between the Houthi militia and the Yemeni Presidential Council under the auspices of the United Nations. It was extended three times, but the fourth time the Houthis refused the extension and raised the slogan of responding to their legitimate demands for return to the truce, which expired last October. Since then, the Houthi militia has been warning against resorting to the option of military escalation in the event that the other parties to the conflict do not meet their alleged demands, and the militia has begun to promote lies that the Arab coalition is violating the situation inside the country and obstructing any attempts to resolve the Yemeni crisis.

This visit also took place about a month after the signing of the Saudi-Iranian agreement that stipulated the restoration of relations between the two regional countries, which came under Chinese sponsorship after a seven-year rupture and after several efforts made by the Sultanate of Oman and Iraq to restore relations between Riyadh and Tehran. Therefore, this visit reflects two things. The first is the Sultanate of Oman’s affirmation of its continued efforts to settle the Yemeni crisis, and the second issue reflects the Kingdom’s desire to resolve this crisis in a way that contributes to the advancement of the economic and living conditions of the Yemeni people.

It should be noted that informed sources revealed to Yemeni media that the first phase of the delegation’s visit will include talking about the steps of confidence-building measures between them, which were previously clarified. As for the second matter, the delegation will offer the Houthis the option of agreeing to a truce for a period of six months, in addition to establishing a negotiation period of three months to manage the two-year transitional period, which ultimately contributes to building confidence between the parties to the conflict.

Houthi insistence

Regarding the extent of the Omani delegation’s response to the Houthis’ conditions, especially the item related to paying the salaries of Houthi employees from oil and gas revenues in the liberated areas, Abdulhameed Al-Masjadi, a Yemeni economic researcher, explained that, over the past years, the Houthi militia has suspended the interruption of salaries on the pretext of aggression or the transfer of the central bank or other delays, although the militia obtains huge amounts of money from its control over all Yemeni institutions and the collection work that it performs, but this money is poured into its coffers while the Yemeni people suffer from hunger and poverty.

Masajdi pointed out in a special statement to the Reference that the current understandings are about paying the salaries of all state employees according to the 2014 statements of oil and gas resources, after agreeing to re-export it, after months of Houthi insistence on transferring salary allocations for state employees in the areas it controls to the salary account in the central bank in Sanaa, after which the militia disposed of it as it wished.

He added that until now there are no clear lines for how to pay salaries, in what currency, and through which bank, as well as whether it will be preceded by the unification of the central bank and ending the division of the national currency, and what will accompany it in terms of ending the division of the banking institution as a whole, in addition to what will lead to understandings about sovereign and local resources, and whether it will be enough to unify the central bank or reach the unification of the Ministry of Finance. Therefore, the Omani-Saudi delegation must resolve these questions before making any promise and before entering into final understandings about the salary file.