Regional and international efforts to revive the UN-sponsored truce in Yemen have not paid off. Since the ceasefire broke down on the 2nd of October, the attitudes of the warring sides have been discouraging, and their actions are leading the country towards a harder deadlock. Two recent developments confirmed that the Yemeni rivals are nowhere near a negotiated political settlement. The first was the Houthi attack on a government-controlled port in Hadramout province in southern Yemen. The second was the government’s decision to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organisation. These two mat…