Warring Parties In Yemen Expected To Agree To Temporary Ceasefire

Yemen
Making a joint statement on Yemen, with left - right, US Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, at Lancaster House in London Sunday Oct. 16, 2016. The United States and Britain expressed hope on Sunday that a cease-fire can be reached in Yemen in the coming days, as a flurry of diplomacy focused on the impoverished, war-torn country. Justin Tallis / Associated Press
Yemen
Making a joint statement on Yemen, with left - right, US Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, at Lancaster House in London Sunday Oct. 16, 2016. The United States and Britain expressed hope on Sunday that a cease-fire can be reached in Yemen in the coming days, as a flurry of diplomacy focused on the impoverished, war-torn country. Justin Tallis / Associated Press

Warring Parties In Yemen Expected To Agree To Temporary Ceasefire

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The civil war in Yemen intensified last week when missiles from Houthi-held areas were fired toward US warships. The warships had been patrolling the nearby Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping corridor linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. The US fired missiles back in retaliation at Houthi-held radar stations on Saturday. The Iran-backed Houthis have held the capital Sana’a since 2014, ousting the Saudi-backed government. While the US has indirectly been involved in the conflict by providing weapons to Saudi Arabia, last week’s exchange of missiles marks deeper involvement in a conflict that has left 10,000 people dead and 3 million displaced. 

The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East were discussed between Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in London on Sunday. They managed to broker a brief ceasefire and proposed a meeting in Oman between the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s rebels. 

Nabeel Khoury joins us to discuss the civil war in Yemen, and what these developments might suggest. Khoury is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.