Yemeni Houthis halt missile strikes, offer wider ceasefire if Saudi-led coalition really wants peace

After years of bloodshed, Yemen’s Houthi movement is urging the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to join a comprehensive ceasefire if it really “wants peace,” the leader of the rebel group Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said Sunday. At the request of Martin Griffiths, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, the group is stopping ballistic missile and drone attacks on the coalition countries. Al-Houthi also stressed the rebels’ readiness to freeze military operations on all fronts in an effort to reach a “just and honorable” peace. Earlier this week the UN official told the UN Security Council that Yemen's warring parties had agreed to hold talks in Sweden “shortly.” Yemen has been the scene of mass casualties and civilian suffering throughout the civil war, especially after the coalition intervention in 2015. While much of the population remains on the brink of starvation, the nation has also endured a cholera outbreak and a severe lack of medical supplies. According to recent estimates, around 56,000 people died in the conflict.