NEW: Saudi officials announce a Yemen cease-fire amid the coronavirus pandemic.
and is also battling the coronavirus outbreak itself, with 2,932 confirmed cases and 41 deaths.
Iran, which backs the Houthis, is also facing challenges at home. As the worst-hit country in the Middle East, it has 67,286 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,993 deaths. Al-Malki, the coalition spokesman, said the ceasefire was aimed at “building confidence” between the two warring parties.Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, has been convulsed by civil war since 2014. That is when the Iranian-backed Houthis took control of the country’s north, including the capital of Sanaa. The Saudi-led military coalition intervened against the Houthis the following year, conducting relentless airstrikes and a blockade of Yemen.
Past attempts at ending the conflict have stalled. A 2018 peace agreement, brokered by the U.N. in Sweden, led to a rough road map to end fighting in the key port city of Hodeida but brought little actual progress. The talks proposed by Al-Malki would be the first face-to-face peace negotiations among the Saudis, Houthis and government since the war started.
Authorities in Yemen have yet to announce a confirmed case of the coronavirus, but experts fear the virus could eventually prove deadly there after the years of devastation by the war.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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