The conflict in Yemen is unwinnable, dangerous for the region and remarkably cruel. So the drawdown of troops by the United Arab Emirates, the biggest outside ground force backing the Saudi-led intervention that has turned a civil war into a humanitarian disaster, should be an example for everyone else involved.

Given global revulsion with the Yemen war, which has created what the United Nations calls the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, the country’s tacit recognition that the conflict is a waste of lives, resources and national stature is a dose of sanity.

The United Arab Emirates has not publicly explained its pullback, evidently for fear of irritating its Saudi allies. But diplomats say the Emiratis, who sent at least 5,000 troops to Yemen to train and lead a mélange of pro-government troops and militias, have wanted out for some time now. They say the United Arab Emirates has sharply cut its deployment of men, attack helicopters and heavy guns around the Red Sea port of Hudaydah, the main battleground last year. A shaky United Nations-mediated cease-fire in Hudaydah that came into effect last December provided the excuse and a reason to pull back.

Those talks, which resumed on Sunday, offer a potential framework for real peace negotiations if other combatants — most important Saudi Arabia, the leader of the coalition in which the United Arab Emirates had the lead ground role — followed the Emirates’ lead.