Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to meet on Yemen

Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief Raheel Sharif are due in Riyadh on Thursday to mend fences with Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom, under US pressure, has called a halt to its bombing campaign in Yemen as fighting continues between rebels and government loyalists and the Obama administration has called for peace talks.

National security council spokesman Alistair Baskey said the US welcomed the announcement of the “conclusion of Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen” and reiterated its support for “resumption of the UN-facilitated political process and of humanitarian assistance”.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "We are happy to see that the aerial operations . . . have ended. Military goals appear to have been reached. We will continue to be on Yemen's side, whether in humanitarian or in other ways." Like Pakistan, Ankara had adopted a neutral stance on the Saudi campaign.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also praised the end of the air war and offered Tehran’s assistance in encouraging a return to dialogue between the sides.

This offer may not be welcomed by Riyadh and its allies which have portrayed the conflict as sectarian and claimed the Shia rebel Houthis enjoy material support from Shia Iran, although regional experts say the tribesmen have received only marginal assistance from Tehran.

Ground troops

The decision by Pakistan, a longstanding Saudi ally, not to deploy its forces has led to at least temporary Saudi abandonment of the military option, which cannot be successful without the fresh ground troops required to bolster overstretched pro-government forces trying to counter the offensive by Houthi tribesmen from the north who have seized control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and a wide band of territory extending south, and parts of the port city of Aden. The Saudis are highly reluctant to commit their own troops to the conflict.

The air campaign has stripped Yemen of many of its army bases, flattened civilian and military airfields, and killed 994 people over the past month.

The Saudis argue the air strikes, launched on March 26th, have ended Houthi threats to the kingdom posed by its air and missile capabilities, although the rebels have not made any attempts to attack Saudi territory from the air. Riyadh announced its operations would enter a political phase with the option of resuming the air war if negotiations fail.

This phase is to be accompanied by increased aid deliveries and efforts to fight “terrorism” as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic State have benefited from the Saudi campaign by seizing territory on the coast and in the interior.

Capitalising on the end of the strikes, the Houthis and their allies seized the Taiz headquarters of the 35th Yemeni armoured brigade which had backed Yemeni president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The Saudis promptly responded with an air strike and said it would continue such action as required. The fighting has dashed hopes of an early resumption of aid flights to Yemen, the region’s poorest country.

In a somewhat contradictory gesture of goodwill, the Houthis released defence minister Mahmooud al-Subaihi, Gen Nasser Mansour Hadi (Mr Hadi’s brother) and Gen Faisal Rajab who had been held since March.