Power-sharing is the only way to end the war in Yemen – if the US supports it

For six years, unrealistic US and Saudi demands for a Houthi surrender have been spurned - but peace talks can still succeed

• Jamal Benomar is a former UN special envoy for Yemen

The war in Yemen did not start on 26 March 2015. But that was when it became seemingly intractable. The morning of that day, the first Saudi bombs rained down on the capital, Sana'a, which the Houthis had captured the previous autumn. Less than a month later, a Saudi-drafted UN security council resolution demanded that the Houthis surrender unconditionally to a government that had fled Yemen to exile in a Riyadh hotel. Such improbable terms, because they would not be agreed to, provided retrospective justification for the Saudis having already pulled the trigger - and for the continuation of their war.

For six years, these surrender ultimatums have manifestly failed. Yet despite Joe Biden's Diplomacy is back" announcement, they continue to form the basis for the United States' preconditions for talks, as well as for the Saudi-proposed peace initiative this week. With an identical approach of you must blink first" laid before the Iranians over nuclear talks, the US is in danger of leading itself into impasses in more than one of its dealings in the Middle East. The futility is most transparent, however, in Yemen: when the Houthis control even more of the country than in 2015, how is it realistic to expect them to accept surrender?