SANAA – Peace talks aimed at ending the war in Yemen have been set for early December in Sweden, between Huthi rebels and the UN-recognized government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday.
He said the Saudis and United Arab Emirates — who have militarily backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in the brutal three-year-old war — “are fully on board, by the way.”
“It looks like that very, very early in December, up in Sweden, we’ll see both the Huthi rebel side and the UN-recognized government, President Hadi’s government, will be up there.”
Mattis last month made a surprise call for a ceasefire in Yemen and urged warring parties to enter negotiations within the next 30 days.
The United Nations has now pushed that deadline back to the end of the year.
Mattis’ latest comments came as the US State Department said talks must not be delayed any longer, and UN envoy Martin Griffiths was in Sanaa for talks with rebel leaders to push them to join the peace talks in Sweden.
Griffiths is spearheading the biggest push in two years to end the war, which has sparked what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
It also comes a day after US President Donald Trump vowed to stick with Saudi Arabia as an ally despite the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul October 2.
The CIA has reportedly concluded that the murder was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but Trump chose to overlook that in favor of the larger relationship with the kingdom.
“On the Khashoggi affair, presidents don’t often get the freedom to work with unblemished partners in all things,” Mattis said.
“If you want to end the war you’re going to deal with Saudi. You can’t say I’m not going to deal with them,” he said.
