Nearly six years of war have shattered Yemen in a way that could thwart efforts to make peace, regardless of whether American bombs are no longer used.

“It might be possible to end the big war, but it is much, much harder to end the small wars that actually make up the conflict.”

“It is not like the operations are going to be suspended tomorrow because of this,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a London-based research group, who focuses on Yemen and the Persian Gulf. “The Gulf countries already have a lot of weapons, so the decision is symbolic in a lot of ways.”

Yemen a messy, tragic microcosm of the Middle East: both a conflict involving entities from within a country & a conflict fought directly & indirectly by neighboring countries. this dual reality explains why peace will likely prove elusive for a long time.

The Biden administration notified members of Congress late Friday that it would reverse terrorist designation from the Houthis. Some experts had thought the designation could be used as leverage to get the group to negotiate.