For more than three months in 2016, Kuwait hosted the most serious attempt yet to end Yemen’s war. The talks were brokered by the UN. When they stalled, Kuwait’s late emir intervened personally to keep the delegations at the table. By August, the talks had collapsed. The parties did not fall out over whether to make peace. They fell out over what should come first: the Houthis withdrawing from cities and handing over heavy weapons or the formation of a new government that included them. Ten year
