The UN-recognised government of Yemen has urged the UK to change its policy in Gaza and back an immediate ceasefire.
The call was made by Ahmad bin Mubarak, the foreign minister of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, during a phone conversation on Tuesday with the British Middle East minister, Lord Ahmad.
He said it was imperative that a ceasefire be implemented immediately in Gaza, according to the read-out provided by the Yemeni side. The call means both sides in Yemen’s civil war – the UN-recognised government and the Houthi rebels – support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The UK says it would only support a ceasefire that is sustainable, which is defined by ministers as one reached after Hamas is no longer able to pose a security threat to Israel.
On Monday in the Commons the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, insisted no connection should be drawn between Gaza and the US-UK strikes in Yemen, but that is not a widely shared view as the Houthis say they are undertaking strikes on commercial shipping to put pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The former Middle East minister Alistair Burt, speaking at a Chatham House seminar in Yemen said: “Is there a connection between what is happening in Yemen and Gaza? Yes there is – because the Houthis say it is connected.”
Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, said he believed the Houthis would end their attacks on commercial shipping if there was a ceasefire in Gaza, but acknowledged this might not be a popular view.
Speaking in Davos the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said: “We think the priority should be de-escalation in the Red Sea and the entire region.” Asked if the crisis in the Red Sea was connected with the war in Gaza he said “it is clearly connected”.
Prince Faisal also said more definitively than before that Saudi Arabia was prepared to normalise relations with Israel on clear conditions. He said: “A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip can be a starting point towards permanent peace [between Israel and the Palestinians] through justice for the Palestinian people.
“We agree that regional peace includes peace for Israel, but that could only happen through peace for the Palestinians through a Palestinian state,” he added.
Asked if Saudi Arabia would then recognise Israel as part of a wider political agreement, he said: “Certainly.”
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said at the World Economic Forum: “We need to address the central issue, which is Gaza in order to get everything else defused … if we are just focusing on the symptoms and not treating the real issues, [solutions] will be temporary.”
He added that US and British attacks create “a high risk of further escalation and further expansion” of the conflict.
