Gulf Council to invite Yemeni rebels to consultations in Riyadh

(Update with reaction from Houthi leader) Riyadh/Sana'a, 15 Mar The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will invite “in the next few days” all parties to the war that has been plaguing Yemen for eight years, including the Shiite Houthi rebels, to consultations in Riyadh, Saudi official television Al Ejbaria reported today. “Official invitations will be sent in the coming days to the Yemeni parties for consultations on Yemen,” said Al Ejbaria, citing “leaders” of the GCC, a political and economic alliance based in Riyadh and bringing together Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. “The Houthis are among the Yemeni parties to which invitations will be addressed to meet at GCC headquarters,” he added. The Saudi channel did not release further details about the “consultations” or whether Houthi rebels have been in favor of a meeting in Riyadh, which also houses the headquarters of the Saudi Arabia-led Arab military coalition that has been intervening in Yemen since 2015 and which bombs Houthi positions almost daily. The Houthi insurgents, considered a terrorist organization by Arab countries and by the UN, had accepted mediation in the conflict by other GCC members, such as Oman or Kuwait, who are not directly involved in the Arab military alliance. The announcement of these “consultations” comes at a time when international warnings are growing about the worsening humanitarian situation that Yemenis are experiencing under the siege of the Arab coalition. For the time being, in response to reports about the imminent proposal for a dialogue, one of the members of the Huti Presidential Council, Mohamed Ali al-Houti, was unwilling to accept the invitation. “What has been circulating in the media about the Gulf Coordination Council's call for dialogue is in fact a call from Riyadh, and Riyadh is a part of the war, not a mediator,” he said in a message on his Twitter account. The conflict in Yemen began in 2014 when the Houthis, supported by Iran, took up arms against the internationally recognized government of President Abdo Rabu Mansur Hadi, a refugee in Riyadh, and controlled the capital and other provinces in the north and west of the country. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned yesterday that the hunger crisis that suffocates Yemen “is on the verge of catastrophe”, and that the number of people suffering from famine, currently at 17.4 million Yemenis, will reach a record figure of 19 million by the end of 2022. CHIEF sa-ja-fa/ppa/fpa