Leaked Pentagon docs reveal Saudi-Yemen talks to US dismay
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The "Top Secret” document entails the full secret conversations between Ansar Allah and Saudi officials regarding Yemen’s public sector salaries, which have gone unpaid for several years.
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National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications John Kirby at the podium and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a news conference on April 10, 2023 (EFE)
The Saudi-Iran deal brought with it, among other conditions, regional cooperation and a potential ceasefire to the humanitarian war on Yemen. However, as part of the Pentagon documents gone public recently, one classified document revealed Saudi Arabia’s intention to allegedly “drag out negotiations" on the war on Yemen.
National Security Council Spokesperson Rebecca Farmer told The Intercept, “The Department of Defense and the intelligence community are actively reviewing and assessing the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media sites,” adding, “But we are not in a position to confirm or comment on any specific information they contain.”
The "Top Secret” document named “Huthi Spokesman Receives Update on Saudi Negotiating Positions,” with limited access to the US and its intel allies dubbed the "Five Eyes", entails the full secret conversations between Ansar Allah and Saudi officials.
It contains details of the negotiations conducted between the parties regarding Yemen’s public sector salaries, which have gone unpaid for several years. The turning point, however, was the moment Saudi and Ansar Allah officials met last week marking the first time in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa - with the salaries being a top discussion point for the Saudis and the Americans thus alike.
US rejects greenlighting
After Ansar Allah demanded that the Saudi Kingdom compensate public sector salaries, even for military and security workers, the Biden administration regarded it as undoable and the US envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, criticized in October what he called the “maximalist demands, insisting that salary payments be paid" first to Ansar Allah military and security personnel as per his claims.
He called it “a threshold that was simply too hard for the other side to contemplate and was entirely unreasonable."
The deal itself wasn't impossible - the US just didn't want to give it the green light.
Read next: Exclusive: Riyadh to announce end to war on Yemen
According to the document, in mid-February, Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Jaber informed Ansar Allah Spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam of Riyadh’s negotiating position privately, by suggesting an option to pay the salaries in installments, permitting an independent body to examine the extensive roster of government employees.
The document, showing that Saudis may have not wanted to cut a deal at the time, shows that an intelligence source of Ansar Allah assessed that if the movement "issued a strong statement," it would "increase pressure on the Saudis, as the Saudis intended to drag out negotiations and avoid making firm commitments."
The source further warned that Ansar Allah's patience was "misunderstood" and that the Saudis hoped to gradually decrease the movement's demands thinking that it was under pressure and in need of a "détente on humanitarian issues before the beginning of Ramadan on 22 March.”
Running for their lives
On the one-year anniversary of the temporary, yet formally expired truce, President Joe Biden issued a statement calling it a “significant milestone” and claimed it “has saved countless Yemeni lives” and “set the conditions for a comprehensive peace.”
In a shocking yet expected turn, experts disclose that the blockade imposed on Yemen by Saudi Arabia accounted for the majority of Yemen's deaths more than the war itself.
Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy, relayed to The Intercept, “While thousands of Saudi airstrikes caused vast devastation over 8 years, the primary cause of suffering for Yemenis today is the Saudi blockade on imports of many basic goods that amounts to collective punishment against innocent Yemenis,” stressing that Yemenis have not felt or witnessed any real benefit yet from the ceasefire.
The US condemnation of Saudi Arabia for lifting the blockade was to corner Ansar Allah in a way that they would agree to an “inclusive” form of government that would allow the US and Saudi-backed proxies to have a role in it after the ultimate peace agreement.
Furthermore, after the China-backed deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Saudis have shown a willingness to let go of their proxies to end the war. That raised an alarm for the US, which sent diplomats scurrying to the region to pressure Ansar Allah and undermine the deal.
Lenderking was transferred to Riyadh on April 11 when the news broke, in an attempt to remind Saudi leaders that the US supports its proxies in the war - although to no avail.
The ceasefire agreement included conditions such as that Saudi Arabia would leave its puppet government, lift the blockade, and as demanded by Ansar Allah, use the oil wealth looted from Yemen to pay Yemeni government salaries.
