Arab FMs to discuss Yemeni crisis in Cairo

The inflammatory Yemen crisis will figure high in a meeting of the Arab foreign ministers due in Cairo on Thursday ahead of an Arab summit, the spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Egypt, a key regional power, has to play a main role in solving the Yemeni crisis, spokesman Badr Abdel Aaty said. However, he denied earlier reports saying Cairo has agreed on a military intervention plan.

"We have no knowledge of reports attributed to the Yemeni foreign minister on Egypt's approval of military intervention in Yemen," Abdel Aaty told Xinhua.

Arab foreign ministers are currently holding preparatory meetings for the upcoming 26th Arab summit that will be held on March 28-29 at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

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

The Houthis, which have seized large parts of the country including its capital Sanaa, have forced the Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to the southern port city of Aden.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin told reporters that his country was urging a military intervention by Arab nations to thwart the Shiite Houthi group's bid to seize power.

The top Yemeni diplomat said Hadi has recently asked the United Nations for an international military intervention to stop the advance of the Houthi rebels.

"Seizing Yemen by the Houthis is a real threat to the Arab national security because Yemen will be ruled by Iran not by the Houthis," Yassin pointed out.

He also accused the Shiite group of being a tool in the hands of Iran, the world's largest Shiite country that is demonized in the Arab Sunni world. Endit