Report says US officials met with Yemen’s Houthis in bid to end war
Timothy Lenderking sat down with the Houthis' lead negotiator late last month.
The Biden administration opened talks with Houthi rebel leaders late last month in a bid to end Yemen’s civil war, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Timothy Lenderking, the lead US envoy on the Yemen crisis, met with Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam in Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Feb. 26.
The meeting was the first time US officials under the new administration met with the Zaydi Shiite rebels, who have slowly consolidated control over a majority of Yemen’s population centers since the outbreak of civil war in 2015.
Lenderking toured the Gulf region last month with stops in Riyadh, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. The Biden administration has pushed for a swift end to Yemen’s conflict, which the United Nations has dubbed the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.
