UN condemns strikes on Saudi Arabia
SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR DIALOGUE TO REACH A POLITICAL SETTLEMENT IN YEMEN
The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” multiple missile attacks launched by Yemen’s Al Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia, saying they posed a threat to regional security.
Saudi forces on Sunday intercepted seven missiles fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Al Houthi militants toward cities in Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh, killing one person.
Council members “expressed alarm at the stated intention of Al Houthis to continue these attacks against Saudi Arabia, as well as to launch additional attacks against other states in the region,” said a council statement.
The council called for dialogue to reach a political settlement that would end the war in Yemen, now in its third year.
The council statement came after a meeting between UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman who presented a $930 million cheque to the United Nations for humanitarian aid to Yemen.
Guterres thanked Prince Mohammad and stressed that a political solution was needed in Yemen, not just a humanitarian response.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition entered the Yemeni war in 2015 just months after an Al Houthi coup forced internationally-recognised Yemeni president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi out of power.
He later was able to escape house arrest and flee to Aden where he temporarily shifted government headquarters.
Since then, the coalition has gained back 86 per cent of Yemeni territory but major population centres still remain under Al Houthi control.
Saudi Arabia and the US have accused Iran of illegally smuggling weapons into Yemen to sustain Al Houthi war efforts.
In December, one such Iranian-made ballistic missile was fired towards Riyadh for the first time in the threeyear war.
Although it was intercepted, Riyadh called it an ‘act of war’.
The war has cost the lives of thousands of Yemenis and pushed the Arab world’s poorest country to the brink of famine.
The latest government push seeks to take advantage of cracks in the awkward Al Houthi alliance with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s supporters.
In a recent meeting with New York Times editors, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said that Al Houthis have become increasingly isolated politically.
He dismissed the seven missiles Al Houthis fired at Saudi Arabia from Yemen on March 25 as “a last-ditch effort” that only showed they were weak.
Saudi Arabia, he said, is now seeking to end the war through a political process, trying to divide Al Houthis and maintaining military pressure on them.