Aden, Yemen — One year into the intervention here by the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and backed by the Yemeni National Army, I can tell my people with confidence that we are working hard to restore peace. The Houthi rebels’ military position has been weakened, and peace talks will resume next month. A cease-fire is to begin on April 10, leading up to the talks. The Houthis must respect it.

We must now direct our efforts to rebuilding our broken country.

Yemen’s war began in the summer of 2014 when the Houthi rebels, joined by soldiers loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, attacked the government’s armed forces in Amran. The rebels went on to occupy Sanaa, the capital, and overthrew Yemen’s legitimately elected government by force that September.

Before the Houthi-Saleh insurgents escalated their violence, my government had done everything possible to avoid an all-out war, and the country was undergoing a peaceful political transition. That process was derailed just as the country was putting into place the decisions of the National Dialogue Conference, a forum created by Yemenis and backed by the international community. The Houthis themselves were party to the conference discussions until they intensified their violence.

With our country in chaos, we were left with no choice but to call for the assistance of our brothers in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Without intervention, Yemen’s future might have been that of a largely lawless and feudal country. Because of Yemen’s strategically significant location on the Gulf of Aden, the impact of continuing chaos would have been felt far beyond our borders — in the other Gulf countries, Europe and the United States.