How Yemen’s United Nations mediation could avoid failing again (but probably won’t)

In an article written for The Washington Post, Peter Salisbury discusses Yemen's peace talks and argues that a negotiated political settlement is the only way for the country to see an end to its conflict.

"As I recently argued in a paper for the British charity Saferworld, a key factor in derailing the political transition set in motion by Ahmed’s predecessor Jamal Benomar was that, while it was marketed as a transformative and inclusive process, little more than lip service was paid to addressing the needs and grievances of Yemenis who had not been part of the Saleh regime. Ahmed cannot afford to ignore the importance of these groups or he stands to be plagued by the same problems that ultimately derailed the transition. The deal brokered by Benomar to end fighting in Yemen in 2011 saw Saleh relinquish power but was unable to prevent the collapse of the subsequent political transition process when Houthis — hitherto seen as a relatively marginal player in Yemen’s power struggles — entered Sanaa in September 2014."

Read the full article on The Washington Post

Read the report Federalism, conflict and fragmentation in Yemen, written by Peter and published by Saferworld.

Find out more about Saferworld's work in Yemen

Peter Salisbury is an associate fellow at the British think-tank Chatham House. A journalist and political economy analyst, his work has appeared in the Economist, Financial Times and Foreign Policy.

“A negotiated settlement is the only way forward if Yemen is to avoid the fate of Iraq, Libya or Syria.”

Peter Salisbury