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Update: Arab FMs to discuss Yemeni crisis in Egypt meeting

Xinhua, March 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

The highly inflammatory Yemeni crisis will be high on the agenda of a Arab foreign ministers' meeting due on Thursday ahead of an Arab summit, the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin told reporters that his country has urged military intervention by Arab nations to thwart Shiite Houthi group's bid to take over the country.

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

The Egyptian foreign ministry's spokesman denied the report, which said Cairo has approved Yemen's plea.

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

Arab foreign ministers are currently holding preparatory meetings for the upcoming Arab summit that will be held on March 28 and 29 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city 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 civil war.

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

The Yemeni foreign minister pointed out 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 said.

He was accusing the Shiite group of being a tool in the hands of Iran, the world largest Shiite country that is demonized in the Arab Sunni world.

Also on Wednesday, warplanes of the Houthi group fired rockets against Hadi's presidential palace in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, while reports said the embattled president has fled the city.

Later, a source at the presidential palace told Xinhua that Hadi is still in Aden to command his forces to battle against the Houthi group.

Hadi is in "a safe and well-guarded place and he won't leave the country," he said. Yet he declined to confirm whether or not Hadi is in the presidential palace. Endit