On October 4, the pro-government Aden Post news website carried the following report: “On Sunday, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi renewed his government’s wish to resume the consultations with the joint delegation of Ansarullah group (the Houthis) and the party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. This was seen during President Abed Rabbo’s meeting with UN Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in Riyadh... Ould Cheikh’s meeting with the Yemeni president falls in the context of a shuttle tour that includes Riyadh and the Omani capital where the Houthi-Saleh delegation is present, in order to sit with the sides involved in the Yemeni conflict and ensure the launching of a new round of consultations. Indeed, the UN Envoy is trying to revive the Yemeni peace talks that were suspended on August 3, after three months of unproductive UN-sponsored consultations in Kuwait.

“Sources in the Yemeni government said at this level that the American Administration was exerting intense pressures on UN Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed and Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government, to place the “government formation” clause ahead of the withdrawal of Ansarullah’s [the Houthis’] armed men from the capital Sanaa, in the anticipated roadmap [to solve] the escalating Yemeni conflict for the last year and a half. The sources thus stated that the US Administration was asking that the roadmap carried by Ould Cheikh during his new Arab tour firstly be based on the formation of a national unity government with the Houthis’ participation, before moving to the other clauses related to the Houthis’ withdrawal from the capital and the surrender of their weapons to a third party...

“This American vision converges with the Houthis’ demands, who are asking to be included in a new unity government, at a time when the Yemeni government is rejecting that and stressing the need to withdraw from the capital Sanaa and surrender the heavy artillery. And the UN envoy supports the government’s vision..., as he announced in an earlier statement before the Security Council: “No government can be formed while the capital is held by one group,” in reference to the Houthis. This contradiction between Ould Cheikh’s vision and the American vision of the solution was the reason behind the obstruction of the visit which the UN Envoy was supposed to conduct to Muscat last Thursday to meet with the Houthi delegation and former President Ali Abdullah. As a result, the course of the visit was changed to the Saudi capital to further discuss the matter...

“But the latest field development that pointed to the non-seriousness of the insurrectionists in putting an end to the crushing battles, the rebels targeted on Saturday a civilian Emirati ship in Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The UAE is part of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition supporting the recognized Yemeni government in the face of the rebels, who seized the capital Sanaa and other regions two years ago. So, the Coalition’s command announced on Sunday that the Houthi rebels represented a threat to international navigation in the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, adding that the Houthis had attacked the ship “while on one of its usual trips from and to the city of Aden, to deliver medical aid and relief, and evacuate the injured civilians so that they can be treated outside of Yemen...””