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Yemeni FM calls for urgent Arab military intervention to thwart Houthi rebels

Xinhua, March 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Yemeni foreign minister said on Wednesday that Yemen will urge an Arab militarily intervention to thwart Shiite Houthi group.

"We call for an urgent Arab military intervention to save Yemen from the Houthis," Riyadh Yassin told reporters, "Condemnations are not enough."

Yassin's comments came on the sidelines of the ministerial preparatory meetings of the 26th Arab Summit meeting to be held 28-29 this month in Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

He pointed out that the Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has recently asked the United Nations for an international military intervention to stop the advance of the Houthi rebels.

Yemen has been gripped by widespread violence in the southern regions since early February, raising fears that the impoverished country is slipping into a civil war.

The Houthis, who have seized large parts of the country including its capital Sanaa, ousted the Yemeni President who fled to the southern port city of Aden.

Sunni tribes have also been engaged in fierce fighting with the Shiite group.

Yassin added that the government is ready for negotiations if the Houthis stopped their military action in Yemen.

"Seizing Yemen by the Houthis is a real threat to the Arab national security because Yemen will be ruled by Iran not the Houthis," Yassin stressed, accusing the Shiite group of being a tool in the hands of Iran.

The Yemeni minister said it's unknown yet if the president Hadi will participate in the meetings of the Arab Summit due to the current security situation in Yemen.

He said Egypt has to play a main role in solving the Yemeni crisis since Egypt is a key player in the region.

The impoverished country mired in political gridlock in 2011 when mass protests forced former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. The three-year reconciliation talks failed to resolve the crisis but created a huge power vacuum that could benefit the powerful al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremist groups. Endit