1st LD Writethru: UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Yemen

The UN Security Council is to meet in an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the current situation in Yemen, the UN Spokesperson's Office announced here Friday.

"The president of the Security Council invites the members of the Council to informal consultations of the whole, in connection with 'Middle East (Yemen)', tomorrow, Saturday, 4 April 2015 at 11:00 a.m.," said an email message sent to reporters here from the UN office.

The meeting will take place behind closed doors, according to the message. Jordan, one of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council, is the rotating council president for April.

On March 22, the 15-nation UN body called an emergency meeting to discuss the volatile situation in Yemen.

The Yemeni crisis has become the focus of the ongoing Arab summit led by Egypt and attended by 20 Arab monarchs and presidents, including fleeing Yemeni President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, amid an ongoing Saudi-led military airstrikes against targets of Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Yemen has mired in political gridlock since 2011 when mass protests forced former President Ali Abdullash Saleh to step down.

The three-year reconciliation talks failed to resolve the crisis but create huge power vacuum that could benefit the powerful al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremist groups.

Conflict in Yemen killed more than 500 people over the past two weeks, Valerie Amos, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement issued by her office on Thursday.

Extremely concerned for the safety of civilians caught in the midst of "fierce fighting" in Yemen, Amos, who is also the UN emergency relief coordinator, called on all parties involved to meet their obligations under international law and do their utmost to protect the ordinary women, children and men who are suffering the consequences of the conflict. Endite