Iran-backed Shia rebels and Saudis have begun talks to try to end Yemen’s war, two officials said.
A delegation from Yemen’s Houthi movement is in Saudi Arabia, they said, in the first visit of its kind since the war began last year between Houthi fighters and an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
The reported talks coincide with an apparent lull in fighting on the Saudi-Yemen border and in Saudi-led Arab coalition air strikes on the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Underlining the regional rifts, a senior Iranian military official meanwhile signalled that Iran could yet send military advisers to Yemen to help the Houthis.
Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, suggested Iran could support the Houthis in a similar way it has backed President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria, in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.
Asked if Iran would send military advisers to Yemen, as it had in Syria, Jazayeri said: “The Islamic Republic ... feels its duty to help the people of Yemen in any way it can, and to any level necessary.”
Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of backing Yemen’s armed Houthi movement, which drove the internationally-recognised government into exile, triggering a Gulf intervention in March.
The UN says nearly 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s fighting. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
The two senior officials from the administrative body that runs parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis said the Houthi visit to Saudi Arabia began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi authorities, following a week of secret preparatory talks.
The Houthi delegation in Saudi Arabia is headed by Mohamed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis’ main spokesman and a senior adviser to Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the officials said. Abdel-Salam previously led Houthi delegates in talks in Oman that paved the way for UN-sponsored talks in Switzerland last year.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power could not immediately be reached for comment. A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman could also not be reached.
Although the Houthis’ al-Masirah news channel has continued to report attacks on what it calls “the Saudi-American forces of aggression” inside Yemen, including a rocket attack on Monday, it has not reported any operations on the border since March 1.
“I also know that there were no new clashes or hostile movements on the Saudi-Yemeni border during the last few days,” said a senior regional diplomat who follows Yemen.