The Yemen war has ended, officials said after an agreement was reached on humanitarian issues and delivery of rights.

The development was shared by Iran Observer on Twitter. It claimed that the extension of the ceasefire would be announced soon.

The development comes after Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore ties and to reopen respective diplomatic missions after talks in China.

Riyadh cut ties with Tehran after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic republic in 2016 following the Saudi execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

“Following talks, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies and missions within two months,” the official Iranian news agency IRNA said, citing a joint statement issued on Friday.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, had travelled to Beijing on Monday for “intensive negotiations with his Saudi counterpart in China in order to finally resolve the problems between Tehran and Riyadh”, IRNA said.

Iran and Saudi Arabia support rival sides in several conflict zones across the Middle East, including in Yemen where the Huthi rebels are backed by Tehran, and Riyadh leads a military coalition supporting the government.

Iraq, a neighbour to both countries, had hosted several rounds of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia since April 2021.

Those encounters were held at a relatively low level, involving security and intelligence officials.

In Friday’s statement, Iran and Saudi Arabia said they “thank the Republic of Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman for hosting the talks held between the two sides in 2021 and 2022 as well as the leaders and government of the People’s Republic of China for hosting and supporting the talks held in that country.”

Reaction to Iran and Saudi Arabia resuming ties

Here are some key quotes and reactions after Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to re-establish relations in deal announced after four days of previously undisclosed talks in Beijing.

Saudi Arabia and Iran’s surprise rapprochement is no “magic wand” for Yemen, analysts told AFP, warning there are no easy solutions for the complex conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country.

Houthi rebels seized control of the capital in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led intervention the following year and fighting that has left hundreds of thousands dead and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

But in a country that has long endured upheaval and is fractured along confessional, regional and political lines, even the withdrawal of Saudi and Iranian influence would not solve all the problems.

“The Saudi-Iran deal is a constructive step, but it won’t in itself resolve the Yemen conflict, at least not in the short term,” Elizabeth Kendall, a Yemen expert from Cambridge University’s Girton College, told AFP.

“This is because the Yemen conflict was ultimately domestically generated around questions of who controls power, territory and resources.”

Yemen’s problems range from a collapsed economy with millions dependent on aid to a significant Al-Qaeda presence and breakaway moves in the south, which was a separate, communist-ruled country from 1967 to 1990.

The Houthis, who adhere to the Zaydi branch of Shia and come from a northern region bordering Saudi Arabia, control large swathes of the country where they are tightening restrictions, particularly on women.