Dhubab win puts pressure on Houthis

As the world looks forward to a new year, Yemenis are still in the grip of the Houthi rebellion. It has now been nearly two and a half years since the Houthi rebels staged a coup in Sanaa and forced out Yemen’s president, and 21 months since Saudi Arabia gathered a coalition, which includes the UAE, to reinstate its legitimate government.

Piece by piece, the coalition are advancing. This past weekend, Yemeni forces, backed by coalition troops, took back the town of Dhubab, on the Red Sea coast, from the rebels. Dhubab is strategically vital, lying just 40 kilometres from the Bab Al Mandeb Strait.

The coalition is especially keen to protect the strait because it is a vital artery for world trade, and the proximity of the Houthi rebels gave them the ability to threaten international shipping. Removing the rebels from Dhubab also limits their ability to smuggle in weapons. Overall, the strategy of the coalition is to limit the ability of the Houthis to affect international trade, and push them out of the cities along the Red Sea coast.

Yet while the war continues, the peace is still being fought for. In concert with the United Nations, the Yemeni government and the GCC are still seeking a peace deal. A proposal made at the end of last year for Mr Hadi to cede his powers to a new vice-president faltered and the Yemeni government asked the UN to propose a more acceptable version.

For their part, the Houthis have taken part in peace talks in name only. The central demand of the Hadi government is that the Houthis must disarm and pull their troops out of the cities they have occupied, especially the capital Sanaa. But the Houthis have refused. Instead, the rebels have formed a rival “government” and have taken to touring foreign capitals to try to gain legitimacy for – so far with no tangible results.

None of this helps the Yemeni people, whose lives have been disrupted and endangered by the long-running occupation of their capital. It would be far better if the Houthis – who have never been given legitimacy by the wider population, as, for example, Mr Hadi has – simply withdrew from the cities they have occupied. If they are unwilling to do that, they should at least take peace talks seriously. But they have not. And until the Houthis recognise that peace talks are the only way for the conflict to end, the coalition will have to maintain its advances.