Yemen Peace Deal “Positive Development” as Port Reopens, But Houthis Excluded from Talks

A U.N.-brokered two-month truce in Yemen is now in its second week. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels both agreed to halt all offensive operations inside Yemen and across its borders. Fuel ships are now being allowed to enter into Hodeidah ports, and the airport in Sana’a is reopening. Over the past six years, the U.N. estimates the war in Yemen has killed nearly 400,000 people — many from hunger. We speak with Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the human rights organization Democracy for the Arab World Now, who says the truce deal, which is the first of its kind, is a “tremendously positive development.” She says domestically it still remains to be seen whether the U.N.’s attempt to establish a new government structure will hold as the U.N. has so far excluded Houthis from the negotiations.