PARIS // Saudi Arabia announced on Friday announced a ceasefire in Yemen from May 12 and urged the country’s Shiite rebels and their allies to stop fighting.
However, it was unclear if the Iranian-allied Houthis were prepared to lay down their arms.
At a news conference in Paris with US secretary of state John Kerry, Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir said the halt in fighting would start on Tuesday at 11pm local time. The humanitarian pause is renewable, depending on compliance by the rebels who have chased Yemen’s internationally recognised government out of the country.
“The ceasefire will end should Houthis or their allies not live up to the agreement – this is a chance for the Houthis to show that they care about their people and they care about the Yemen people,” said Mr Al Jubeir.
A Saudi-led coalition has carried out six weeks of airstrikes against the Houthis, as Riyadh hosts the exiled Yemeni government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.
Earlier on Friday, the coalition declared an entire province along Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen a “military target to coalition strikes after 7pm” local time.
Witnesses in the rebel stronghold of Saada said coalition jets had dropped leaflets urging residents to leave the province, while scores of families were seen arriving in the capital.
The escalation came in response to recent attacks by the Houthis on Saudi cities near the border, which the coalition warned had crossed a “red line”.
“The equation is different, the confrontation is different, and they will pay a harsh and expensive price,” coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Al Assiri said.
“The safety of Saudi Arabia is a top priority for the coalition and the Saudi armed forces. It is a red line they crossed.”
Yemeni officials said on Friday that more than 50 airstrikes had hit Saada overnight and in the early hours of the morning. The Saudi Press Agency reported that warplanes destroyed a landmine factory, a telecommunications complex and command centres in Saada.
Coalition warplanes also hit Houthi positions in the city of Amran, north of the capital Sanaa, while overnight strikes in the southern city of Aden killed 12 Houthis and Saleh loyalists.
Aden’s health authority chief Al Khader Laswar said on Friday that three civilians and three southern fighters had been killed in clashes, while 36 civilians had been wounded.
Coalition strikes also hit the eastern outskirts of rebel-held Ataq, the Shabwa provincial capital, as tribal fighters attacked on the ground.
In the southern town of Loder, a roadside bomb killed 12 Houthis, local commander Ali Issa said, adding that two of his men had died in clashes.
On Thursday, Mr Al Jubeir and Mr Kerry said in Riyadh that they were working on a ceasefire but needed more time to flesh out the details. On Friday in Paris, where they gathered with other Arab foreign ministers, Mr Kerry said the ceasefire was conditional on no bombing, no shooting, no repositioning of troops and no movement of heavy weapons.
“A humanitarian catastrophe is building,” Mr Kerry warned, saying civilians were running out of food, fuel and medicine and that aid groups needed to be allowed to get supplies into and around the country.
He said that anyone who cares about Yemen, or even pretends to care, would act to help put the ceasefire in place.
Airstrikes have failed to halt the Houthis and allied fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, amid mounting concern over civilian casualties.
Weeks of fighting have now killed more than 1,400 people and wounded nearly 6,000, many of them civilians.
Unicef warned that fuel in Yemen may run out in less than a week, complaining that humanitarian access was being blocked by many parties to the conflict.
Also Friday, UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed met with Mr Hadi in Riyadh as he tries to relaunch stalled peace talks, the president’s office said.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse