The Intercept:

Forty-one Democrats and Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors, including CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who introduced an earlier version in 2019. DeFazio also secured the support of more moderate Democratic leaders, like House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Rules Committee Chair Jim McGovern, D-Mass., whose panel will have to shuffle the resolution through to a floor vote. There are five Republican co-sponsors: Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.; Thomas Massie, R-Ky.; Ken Buck, R-Colo.; Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.

And the resolution has the endorsement of more than 100 organizations, including the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Demand Progress, and Just Foreign Policy, which are urging members of Congress this week to support it. “This is more essential than ever to maintain momentum for the fragile two-month truce and to prevent backsliding by blocking U.S. support for any renewed hostilities,” their letter, shared with The Intercept, says.

It is not in the interest of the people who control our government to allow the Yemen war to end. Our government needs to stay as far away from this effort as possible.

See also: Yemen Truce Hangs In Balance As Extension Talks Falter

The New Arab:

The head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, on Sunday said the group was not against extending a UN-brokered truce, despite describing it as “not encouraging enough”.

The two-month nationwide truce between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthi group, the first since 2016, went into effect on 2 April and has largely held.

The United Nations is now seeking an extension to pave the way for inclusive political negotiations to end a seven-year war that has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

“We affirm that we are not against the extension of the truce, but what is not possible is accepting any truce in which the suffering of our people continues,” Mashat said in a speech carried by Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement.

The Washington Post:

With just two weeks left in a two-month cease-fire in Yemen, the U.N. envoy to the war-torn country said Tuesday that talks with the government and Houthi rebels are going on right now and he hopes the truce will be extended.

But Hans Grundberg was wary of making any prediction, saying that agreement on an extension would depend on the talks that he and his office are having with the warring parties.

“During these past six weeks we have seen considerable positive impact on the daily lives of many Yemenis,” he told reporters after a closed briefing to the U.N. Security Council. “First, and most importantly, the truce is holding in military terms.”

The two-month truce is the first nationwide cease-fire in six years in Yemen’s civil war, which erupted in 2014. That year, the Iranian-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power.

The conflict created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world while becoming a regional proxy war in recent years. More than 150,000 people have been killed, including over 14,500 civilians.

Middle East Eye:

Saudi Arabia is freeing a batch of Houthi rebel prisoners as part of what it says are efforts to bring an end to the seven-year war in Yemen.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced on Friday there would be “three stages of air transport of prisoners” to the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden.

AhlolBayt News Agency:

On April 2, an agreement between Yemen and the countries of the US-backed Saudi-led aggression has been reached. The ceasefire which took effect, was supposed to last for two months, after seven years of aggression and siege on the already impoverished country. However, the Saudi-led coalition reneged on the agreement and breached Yemeni sovereignty several times.

See also:
–Houthis Attack Yemen Govt Security Centre Despite Truce
–UN Demands Release Of Staff Held By Yemen Rebels

War On The Rocks:

After years of relative inertia, events have moved quickly in the Yemeni Civil War over the past several weeks. With a new government in place and a ceasefire holding on the ground, this could be Yemen’s best chance for peace since 2014.

Between The Lines:

As U.S. and world media provide saturation coverage of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, another vicious war in Yemen is being prosecuted by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with weapons supplied by the U.S. Although there’s little media attention paid to the Yemen war, this nation, among the poorest in the world is experiencing our planet’s most severe humanitarian crisis. Nearly 400,000 civilians have died since the Saudi-led intervention began in March 2015 and more than 16 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. According to the World Food Program, at least half of Yemeni children under the age of five — 2.3 million people — are at acute risk of malnutrition.

The death toll in Yemen is partly attributed to the Saudi-led coalition’s blockade and bombings that target civilian infrastructure, which has destroyed access to food, water, and healthcare. A tenuous 60-day truce in the war was negotiated by the UN on April 2, but its fate is uncertain.

Reuters:

A two-month ceasefire has given aid groups a chance to step up aid to Yemen’s hungry millions, but malnutrition ravaging children is projected to worsen if fighting returns or humanitarian funding does not pick up.

“The benefits of the first weeks of truce are already significant,” said Erin Hutchinson, Yemen Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The group has been able to give aid to 12,000 people in one district of Hajjah province that has not been reached for more than three years.

More than seven years of conflict in Yemen have devastated the economy, displaced millions and pushed food prices out of the reach of many. Spiking global grain and commodity prices are adding further strain.

“Tens of millions of people in Yemen are living hand-to-mouth,” said Richard Ragan of the World Food Programme (WFP), which is trying to feed half of Yemen’s 30 million people in one of its largest ever programmes.

Forbes:

The scenes of carnage in Ukraine have sparked anger and concerted action against the Russian invasion of that country, now in its eighth week. But there is another conflict, now in its eighth year, that has resulted in the deaths of nearly half a million people and driven millions more to the brink of starvation – the war in Yemen. And unlike the war in Ukraine, where Washington faces daunting obstacles in attempting to end Russian atrocities, the United States has considerable leverage in bringing the Yemen conflict to an end, and soon.

Al Jazeera:

The head of Yemen’s newly formed presidential council, Rashad al-Alimi, has been sworn in along with other members of the eight-member council in a ceremony in the southern port city of Aden.

Members of the presidential council arrived from Saudi Arabia over the past few days.

The ceremony was conducted on Tuesday in front of members of the Yemeni parliament, which was last elected in 2003.

The event was not announced in advance for security reasons.

Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalek Saeed, along with other senior government officials, had also arrived in Aden, which serves as Yemen’s temporary capital, before the swearing-in ceremony.

It remains unclear whether the government and the presidential council will remain in Aden, or whether members will return to Riyadh, as they have previously done since the beginning of the war.

Al Jazeera:

Despite the announcement of a two-month truce by the United Nations on April 2, the front lines of Yemen’s Marib have not been quiet.

Iran-aligned Houthi rebels resumed their attacks on the energy-rich government stronghold, the last in Yemen’s north, soon after the truce announcement.

While the fighting has not been at the intensity of past Houthi offensives in Marib, it raises questions as to the group’s intentions, even with the UN and the international community more optimistic that a peace deal to end Yemen’s war can be reached.

See also: WSJ: Saudi Prince Put Yemen’s President On House Arrest After Forcing His Resignation

Al-Monitor:

The UN envoy to Yemen called Wednesday for “serious engagement” to uphold the war-torn country’s truce, which has offered a rare respite from violence.

Hans Grundberg spoke at the end of his first visit to the rebel-held capital, where he held talks with Huthi rebel leaders.

The two-month ceasefire took effect 11 days ago.

“While we see that the truce is broadly holding, we need to be mindful of the challenges, too,” the Swedish diplomat warned at the end of his three-day visit.

“We are relying on the parties’ continued commitment and serious engagement in upholding the truce.”

The renewable ceasefire comes seven years after a Saudi-led coalition began its military intervention in Yemen, after the Iran-backed Huthis took control of swathes of the country including Sanaa in 2014.

See also: US Navy Says New Task Force To Patrol Red Sea Amid Yemen War

Reuters:

Yemen’s president delegated power to a presidential council and dismissed his deputy on Thursday in a move aimed at supporting U.N.-led efforts to revive negotiations to end the bitter seven-year war in the country.

Riyadh announced $3 billion in financial aid to the Saudi-backed government after the announcement by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It called for talks with the Houthi group that controls the north and has been battling a Saudi-led coalition.

Yemen’s warring sides had in a major breakthrough agreed a two-month truce that began on Saturday, the first since 2016. The truce also eased a coalition blockade on areas held by the Houthis, who ousted Hadi’s government from the capital Sanaa in late 2014.

“I irreversibly delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full powers in accordance with the constitution and the Gulf Initiative and its executive mechanism,” Hadi, who is based in Riyadh, said on state television.

See also: UN Envoy Says He’s Concerned About Yemen Truce Violations

Dunya News:

Yemen s warring parties on Tuesday traded accusations of violating a ceasefire agreement, three days after it went into effect at the start of Ramadan.

The internationally recognised government, supported by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels have been locked in a violent power struggle since 2014, when the insurgents seized the capital Sanaa.

But a two-month truce that started on Saturday — the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — has offered a glimmer of hope in the conflict considered the world s worst humanitarian crisis.

CNN:

The Saudi-led military alliance and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, who have been at war in Yemen since 2015, agreed to a two-month truce Friday, marking a significant step toward ending the conflict in years.

The last coordinated cessation of hostilities nationwide was during peace talks in 2016.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the truce, which he said has “fueled one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and has left millions on the brink of starvation.