Yemen’s Supreme Political Council to study US truce proposal

The highest political body in Yemen says it will study a US ceasefire proposal, which has been put forth amid Saudi Arabia’s failure to disentangle itself from the war it has been waging on Yemen.

According to a member of the Yemeni negotiating team, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon presented the proposal to the representatives of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council at a meeting in Oman’s capital, Muscat.

Shannon met the Yemeni representatives and an Omani mediator in Muscat on September 8 and 9 to lay out the proposal, he added. The details of the plan were not publicized by the unnamed official, however, Reuters reported.

The Yemeni negotiators had been in Kuwait for peace talks with Saudi-backed former regime officials before they left for Oman in early September. The talks had deadlocked, and Saudi Arabia had blocked them from returning to Yemen since then.

According to the Yemeni negotiator, Riyadh has now agreed to allow them back in Yemen in a United Nations (UN) airplane. Saudi Arabia had previously threatened to shoot down the plane carrying the Yemeni negotiators back.

Once back in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, the negotiators will consult other officials on the US proposal.

SS