Diplomacy underway to allow Houthis a “climbdown” from attacks, US official says

PHOTO CAPTION: Houthi tribesmen gather to show defiance after U.S. and UK air strikes on Houthi positions near Sanaa, Yemen February 4, 2024. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Diplomatic efforts are underway to try to find a "climbdown" for Yemen's Houthis, the special U.S. envoy to Yemen said in a video recording released on Tuesday, in an apparent reference to finding a face-saving solution to ending their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

U.S. Special Envoy Tim Lenderking recorded his comments on Friday for a think-tank conference before flying to Oman for talks on the crisis that has triggered retaliatory U.S. and British strikes against Houthi weapons sites.

Oman has been a mediator with the Iran-aligned Houthis, who overran the capital Sanaa and Yemen's most populated areas in a civil war that has subsided despite the expiration of a 2022 ceasefire.

The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the militants' leader on Tuesday vowed to escalate the missile and drone attacks unless Israel halts its operations against the enclave's ruling Hamas Islamists.

Diplomatic efforts are "being made to try and find a climbdown for the Houthis that would enable (the) situation to improve and to move away from the kinetic aspect" of the Red Sea crisis, Lenderking said.

He cited talks held in Oman last week by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the Norwegian deputy foreign minister and U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg as part of those efforts.

Lenderking accused Iran of aiding Houthi attacks by providing them with weapons, intelligence and "determining which are the more lucrative targets." Tehran denies backing the strikes.

Lenderking said the longer the Houthi attacks persisted, the higher the danger of renewed fighting in Yemen and disruptions to food and medicine shipments needed in Yemen and Gaza.

The attacks have disrupted maritime trade in one of the world's busiest sea corridors, forcing ships to divert to the Cape of Good Hope, raising insurance rates and driving up shipping costs, he said.

Lenderking said he hopes to hold talks on preserving a roadmap to end the war in Yemen worked out by the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which intervened on behalf of the internationally recognized government in 2015.

While saying there was no basis for the Houthis to link their attacks to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Lenderking said: "We need to see serious de-escalation in Gaza."

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; editing by Gabriel Araujo and Deepa Babington)