Saudi Arabia Announces Cease-Fire in Yemen

Adel al-Jubeir, right, the Saudi foreign minister, and Secretary of State John Kerry after a meeting Friday in Paris.CreditAndrew Harnik/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Saudi Arabia Announces Cease-Fire in Yemen

PARIS — Saudi Arabia announced on Friday that it would halt its bombing campaign in Yemen for five days beginning on Tuesday, in a sign that it was bowing to international pressure to ease a worsening humanitarian crisis in a country battered by weeks of war.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir of Saudi Arabia said the cease-fire would begin at 11 p.m. Tuesday. Mr. Jubeir, who spoke at a news conference in Paris with Secretary of State John Kerry, said the success of the cease-fire was contingent on cooperation by the Houthis, the Yemeni rebel group that has been the target of a Saudi-led military offensive that began in late March.

“It is our hope and our desire that the Houthis will come to their senses,” Mr. Jubeir said. The Houthis did not react to the cease-fire proposal later on Friday.

Saudi Arabia, which is leading a military coalition of Arab states, had faced intensifying international criticism over airstrikes that have killed scores of civilians across Yemen. It had also faced mounting pressure from the Obama administration to pursue a negotiated solution to what has become an open-ended conflict, killing more than 1,200 people and threatening to destabilize the region beyond Yemen’s borders.
Annotated maps showing the Houthi rebels’ drive south, U.S. airstrikes and historical divisions.

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After six weeks of bombing, the Saudis have yet to achieve their primary military objectives. The Houthis, who have links to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, have continued to advance on several Yemeni cities. The Saudis have also failed so far to restore the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen, whom the Houthis forced into exile.

A potential halt in the fighting opened the possibility that desperately needed supplies would finally start reaching Yemen. Deliveries of fuel, food and medicine have been obstructed by a Saudi sea and air blockade, as well as by fighting and checkpoints on roads.

In response to a question about whether the United States would pressure Houthi allies, including Iran and Russia, to press for a cease-fire, Mr. Kerry said there were “indications” that the Houthis would accept the cease-fire, “but no certainty.”

He said “the diplomacy will now take place” with Houthi allies to try to persuade them to press the Houthis to accept the cease-fire terms. If they did accept, he said, five days would give the Houthis time to “pass the word and give strict orders” to the movement’s fighters. “The rules are very straightforward,” he said. “Don’t shoot, don’t move around and start to reposition, and take advantage of this. This is a humanitarian pause, and they should treat it accordingly.”

Mr. Kerry indicated that low-level violations would not necessarily scuttle a truce, saying, “The Saudis have indicated that they are not going to break this up over some mistake.” But in the event of “some bold, significant, clear effort to attack or move people,” the cease-fire would end, he added.

Military action by the Saudi-led coalition on Friday appeared to threaten the cease-fire before it had begun. Houthi news media outlets reported dozens of airstrikes in Saada Province in the north of Yemen, the Houthis’ traditional seat of power near the Saudi border.

Mr. Jubeir and other Saudi officials said the airstrikes were in response to cross-border attacks by pro-Houthi forces over the last few days that had killed at least five people. On Friday, Saudi Arabia abruptly warned civilians to leave the province by nightfall and declared the entire province a military zone — threatening a new humanitarian crisis, aid workers said.

Doctors Without Borders, which operates in several hospitals in Yemen, including in Saada, said in a statement that it was “impossible for the population of the entire province of Saada to leave within a few hours. Many people have neither vehicles nor fuel due to the coalition’s blockade.”

Saudi Arabia announced on April 21 that it was shifting the focus of its military operations to focus on humanitarian relief, but its airstrikes continued.

A report issued on Friday by Amnesty International found that eight airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on densely populated areas had killed at least 139 people, among them at least 97 civilians. The group criticized what it said was “the repeated failure by the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths.”

Human rights groups have also sharply criticized pro-Houthi forces, including the imposition of a harsh, weekslong siege on the southern port city of Aden, where hundreds of people have been killed.

The Obama administration, which is trying to alleviate concerns about regional security in the Persian Gulf, is to host Gulf leaders next week at Camp David, where new joint security initiatives are expected to be announced. The White House said Friday that King Salman of Saudi Arabia would attend.


Alissa Rubin reported from Paris, and Kareem Fahim from Cairo. Mohammed Ali Kalfood contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen, and Michael R. Gordon from Washington.