A M Al-Houthi: Peace Initiative with the Saudis

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by: Hassan Al-Haifi

In a recorded statement posted on the You Tube and 4 Share, the Field Leader of the Houthis or Believing Youth Movement, Abdul-Malik Badr Eddine Al-Houthi announced an offer for peace with the Saudi Arabians with the following stipulations:

1) The Houthis will withdraw from all the bases, outposts and camps they took over in Saudi Arabian territory since the entry of the Saudis in the conflict and give them back to the Saudis.
2) The Saudis should stop all attacks on them and, "in particular", on the civilian populations of Yemen that are now daily victims of Saudi aerial, rocket and artillery barrages deep into Yemeni terrirtoy and "far away from the areas of the encounters" between the Saudi military and the Houthis.

He stated this after having given a brief background of the reasons behind the current encouters between the Houthis and Saudi forces. He reiterated that the reason the Houthis were compelled to attack into Saudi territory was because the Saudis allowed the Yemeni forces to use their territory, bases and facilities despite efforts to prevent this.
Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi said that this is the third effort to foster a peace deal with the Saudis and to show the formers' good intents. He suggested that the Houthis have no ambitions whatsoever in Saudi Arabia, but are purely acting in self-defense having only taken over outposts and bases in Saudi territroy that were used by the Yemeni forces against them.

He warned that if the Suadis do not acceot this third gesture for peace, the Houthis will then have no choice but to engage in an "open war" with the Saudis, in which several fronts will be opened and there will be no limits as to what that would entail.

The Saudis have been directly involved in the War in Sa'ada and other Northern Yemeni Governorates since November 2009, but have strongly backed the Yemeni Government effort to crush the rebellion of the followers of the late Hussein Badr Eddine Al-Houthi, who was killed in the First Round of what has now come to Six Rounds of heavy fighting with brief lapses of truces. The Saudis have only been directly involved starting from this current Sixth Round, claiming that they only want to stop the "infiltrators" and push them out of Saudi territory. Both the Yemeni Government and the Saudis have suffered setbacks against the resilient Houthi rebels in a terrain that is among the most difficult terrain in the world.

Al-Houthi made no mention of his adversaries on the Yemeni side in this offer.