CAIRO (AP) — A volley of fire between the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia has threatened to upend a 2022 truce in Yemen and open another front in the already expanding war in the Middle East after the collapse of the ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran.“Yemen today faces a greater risk of renewed large-scale conflict than at any point since the U.N.-brokered truce of April 2022, ” U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg warned.The escalation, he said, risks “jeopardizing the gains of the 2022 truce ... while also drawing the country into a broader regional confrontation, with devastating consequences for its people.”Grundberg said he has engaged in intensive talks with Yemeni parties and regional governments to avert further escalation.
The Houthi turned down a compromise offerThe tit-for-tat attacks started July 13 with a Saudi airstrike that hit the runway of the airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, preventing the landing of an Iranian flight carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation.Flying a flight without prior permission from the Saudi-led coalition — a decade-long, war-related requirement — was an attempt by the Houthis to establish a new reality on the ground, challenging the coalition’s control over Yemeni airspace.
