The Head of Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, on Friday called for general mobilization in the war-ravaged country, urged Yemenis to join the ranks of the government forces amid military escalation with the Iran-backed Houthis.
In a televised address, al-Alimi, said the objective is to “restore state institutions and extend sovereignty over the entire national territory,” all the way to the Yemeni capital Sana’a being controlled by the rebel Houthi militia.
Al-Alimi also announced safe return with amnesty for anyone who abandons the Houthis and stops fighting in their ranks.
He also addressed residents of the Houthi-controlled areas, urging them to protect their children’s lives and not to send them to fight along the Houthis.
“The state does not view you as a party to a conflict, but rather as its people and its partners,” he said.
The Houthis have been fighting Yemen’s Saudi-backed government for more than a decade. A 2022 truce left the conflict largely frozen, but also with little prospect of an end to the war.
Fighting has recently flared up again in Yemen amid the wider conflict involving Iran, plunging the already impoverished country deeper into war.
In recent weeks, the Houthis have intensified their missile and drone attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia, and imposed a blockade on its vessels, accusing the kingdom of besieging the Yemeni areas under the militia’s control.
The Houthis earlier this month seized the western coast of Yemen in a lightning offensive, gaining access to the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait, igniting global fears of shipping through the chokepoint.