A United Nations plane will be allowed to evacuate 50 wounded Houthi militants from the rebel-held capital of Yemen, Sana’a, boosting hopes of a breakthrough in the conflict.
“A UN-chartered plane will arrive at Sanaa international airport Monday to evacuate 50 wounded combatants accompanied by... three Yemeni doctors and a UN doctor, from Sana’a to Muscat,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said in a statement
The move has been called a “confidence-building” measure by the Saudi-led coalition, ahead of planned peace talks in Sweden.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The “evacuation on a UN-chartered plane marks a key step forward in kickstarting stalled negotiations”, The Guardian says, which some hope could help bring to an end the four-year civil war that has devastated the country, leaving it on the brink of famine.
The fate of the wounded fighters was cited as a key stumbling block to earlier peace talks scheduled for September, which fell apart when the soldiers were unable to leave the besieged capital.
Houthi rebels have said they will attend UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden this week, “if guarantees to ensure they can leave home and return back are maintained”, The Daily Telegraph says.
The timing of the peace talks remains unclear, with the Straits Times reporting that talks were due to begin this week.
However, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has “played down the early December schedule and said he hoped talks would start ‘this year’”, The Times says.
-
‘Restaurateurs have become millionaires’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Earth is rapidly approaching a ‘hothouse’ trajectory of warmingThe explainer It may become impossible to fix
-
Health insurance: Premiums soar as ACA subsidies endFeature 1.4 million people have dropped coverage
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
