WASHINGTON — The rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran could curb weapons smuggling to Yemen’s Houthis and turn up the pressure on the rebels after eight years of grueling war, a senior US government official told Al-Monitor. 

The agreement reached in China this month to resume diplomatic relations between the two regional heavyweights will be put to the test in Yemen, a venue for proxy warfare between Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition supporting the internationally recognized government, and Iran, which backs the country’s Houthi rebels. 

The bloody conflict, which since 2014 has displaced millions of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine, had slowed to a stalemate by the time a UN-mediated truce was reached last April. Before it collapsed in October, the cease-fire brought a sharp reduction in casualties, established limited international flights from the airport in rebel-held Sanaa and increased fuel shipments to the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah. 

The exact terms of the Saudi-Iranian agreement are not public, but a spokesperson for the Iranian mission to the United Nations told Al-Monitor that while the main focus is normalized ties with the kingdom, “it is expected that the situation in Yemen will benefit from this agreement.”