The long-running conflict in Yemen is riper for resolution than ever before. Yemenis on all sides are exhausted by the fighting and were quick to embrace the appeal issued in March by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The following month, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced a two-week unilateral ceasefire, which it subsequently extended.
The warring parties have already made significant progress toward a ceasefire agreement, in negotiations brokered by the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths. Furthermore, the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is backed by the United Arab Emirates, agreed in June to resume talks with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, thereby ending the fighting in Abyan, Shabwa and Socotra provinces.