Saudi coalition declares cease fire in Yemen due to Coronavirus.

Smoke rises during a battle in Yemen. BBC/EPA.

The Saudi led coalition has declared a cease fire in Yemen due to fears of the Coronavirus. BBC. The Saudis declared the two week cease fire unilaterally. The cease fire is due in part to trying to give the UN lead peace envoy a chance to work as well as trying to defend against the Coronavirus outbreak. The Saudis hope that the effort can lead to a permanent peace. The Iran backed Houthi rebels have largely rejected the peace movement and want Saudi troops to withdraw from Yemen. 

My Comment:

Looks like Saudi Arabia is looking for a way out of the Yemen conflict. They are not doing well there and haven't had much luck in fighting the Houthi rebels. The conflict is costly and has done significant damage to Saudi Arabia's economy and infrastructure. 

Not helping things is the Saudi Arabian oil war with Russia. Oil prices have collapsed globally due to increased production at a time when people aren't using anywhere near as much fuel as they used to. This has done a lot of damage to the Saudi Arabian economy as well, which is very reliant on oil production. 

The Coronavirus is also a concern. Armies in general are very vulnerable to respiratory diseases like SARS-CoV-2. Soldiers tend to stay in close contact with each other and are largely unable to take protective steps against the disease. 

Yemen does not have any confirmed cases but that is likely due to a lack of testing. Yemen is a basket case and their health system isn't able to handle normal things like Cholera. The war has made things much worse and the people there are probably very vulnerable to the virus. Continuing the war at this point will make their situation, which is already terrible, even worse.   

Of course the Houthi rebels, and their Iranian backers, have their own say in this and it doesn't look like they are going to cooperate. And why should they? They don't care about civilian casualties and their enemy is on their back feet. If they keep the pressure up they can greatly damage the Saudi government and maybe even win the war. 

For that reason I don't see the cease fire amounting to much. Wars probably will continue as the virus continues to ravage the world. The Houthis aren't going to give up even if the Saudi's decide to impose a cease fire. And I think the Coronavirus is going to end up ravaging Yemen...