Tillerson meets with British, Saudi, UAE ministers on Yemen

PARIS/DUBAI: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met on Tuesday with the foreign ministers of Britain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to discuss “a political solution” to the conflict in Yemen.

The meeting was organized by top British diplomat Boris Johnson at the British Embassy in Paris.

Tillerson and Johnson took part earlier Tuesday in the launch of an international initiative against chemical weapons, in particular in Syria.

“The conflicts in Syria and Yemen have created two of the worst humanitarian crises of our time,” Johnson said ahead of the meetings.

“There can be no military solution to either conflict, only peaceful and carefully negotiated political solutions will truly end the suffering.”

“We talked about the agreed critical goals in Yemen which are, first and foremost, to sustain the measures that have been taken over the course of the past weeks to expand” humanitarian access, a senior US State Department official said after the embassy meeting.

“That’s what provides all of us the space” to pursue “further goals” of a political resolution to the conflict and a strategy to counter Iranian influence in Yemen, he added.

Riyadh on Monday announced $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid and an operation to facilitate relief.

Saudi Arabia and the US accuse Iran of smuggling weapons to the Houthi militia.

“The Iranian proliferation has to come to an end. If it doesn’t come to an end, there need to be consequences,” the US official said, without specifying the form of retribution.

Clashes in Yemen

Clashes in the Yemeni rebel heartland of Saada province have killed 40 Houthi fighters.

The Houthis were killed in clashes over the past 24 hours with a pro-government alliance, which controls several pockets of the province, Al-Ekhbariya television reported.