A UN-brokered two-month ceasefire in Yemen was broadly holding on its first full day with oil shipments reaching the port of Hodeida, including some ships that have been barred from entering for 88 days.
The ceasefire is the biggest step forward in the six-year war and is intended to apply inside and outside the country’s borders.
In a statement, the UN special envoy Hans Grundberg stressed the importance of building on the agreement to restore trust between the warring parties and resume a political process aimed at ending the conflict.
He hopes such a relatively long ceasefire provides an opportunity to develop full peace talks, and to start to address some of the underlying economic problems prolonging the conflict.
“The aim of this truce is to give Yemenis a necessary break from violence, relief from the humanitarian suffering, and most importantly hope that an end to this conflict is possible,” Grundberg said.
The terms of the truce include facilitating the entry of 18 fuel ships into the ports of Hodeida and allowing two commercial flights a week to and from Sana’a airport to predetermined destinations. The terms also include convening a meeting between the parties to agree on opening roads in the city of Taiz and elsewhere to improve civilians’ freedom of movement inside Yemen.
“My heartfelt congratulations to all Yemenis on the start of the holy month of Ramadan,” Grundberg said. “I hope the onset of this truce will give Yemenis a chance to celebrate the holy month in peace, safety and tranquility.”
The ceasefire coincided with the separate Gulf Cooperation Council-sponsored talks between many of the warring parties in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Those talks are not being attended by the Houthi rebel group that claimed responsibility for further attacks last week on Saudi Aramco sites inside Saudi Arabia. The British ambassador to Yemen, Richard Oppenheim, urged the Houthis to join the talks in Riyadh, adding that the aim was to turn the ceasefire into something permanent.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Saturday expressed hope for a “political process” to bring peace to the impoverished country.
“You must take that momentum in order to make sure that this truce is fully respected and that it is renewed and … that a true political process is launched,” he said.
“This demonstrates that even when things look impossible, when there is the will to compromise, peace becomes possible,” Guterres added.
The US special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, claimed the ceasefire was the product of a change in battlefield dynamics and a realisation by the Iran-backed Houthis that they cannot win militarily.
“We would like to see Iran move away from the negative tactics and role they have played up this point,” he said.
