ABU DHABI – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that Yemen’s Houthi rebels would not be allowed to take over the country as he launched an attack on the militia’s ally Iran.
Adel Al Jubeir accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with weapons and attempting to destabilise countries in the Arabian Gulf.
“We see Iran supporting Houthis in Yemen and trying to take over the government, supply weapons to the Houthis, smuggle explosives to Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,” Mr Al Jubeir told Reuters in Beijing where he was attending the G20 summit.
“We wish we could be as good neighbours like before the 1979 revolution. It’s up to Iran to mend its behaviour.”
Three-and-a-half months of peace talks in Kuwait between the Yemeni government, the rebels and representatives of their ally, ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, broke down in early August. The failure of the talks has intensified fighting on the ground, as well as air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Houthi-controlled areas of northern Yemen and increased rebel cross-border attacks against the kingdom.
The rebels demonstrated their cooperation with Iran and its allies this week, sending a delegation to Iraq for meetings with the country’s foreign minister and the leader of the Iranian-backed Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
“What is certain, not questionable, certain, they [the Houthis] will not be allowed to take over Yemen. Period,” said Mr Al Jubeir. “So the legitimate government will be defended. The chance they have is to enter the political process, reach an agreement … for the benefit of all Yemenis.”
The already disastrous humanitarian situation in Yemen has been exacerbated, with the United Nations warning last week that nearly 8 million people are malnourished. Nearly three times as many are in need of humanitarian assistance and medical aid.
At a conference on post-war reconstruction held in Riyadh on Wednesday, Yemen’s minister of local administration said the World Bank estimates that US$15 billion (Dh55.1bn) will be necessary. But international donors are wary of making pledges given the continuation of the conflict, in which attempts to deliver humanitarian aid have failed because of blockades and siege.
It is “not easy to regain the trust” of donors, Abdulraqeb Said Fateh said. “The donors are ready but they are requesting a safe environment and that’s their right.”
US secretary of state John Kerry met with Saudi leaders, GCC foreign ministers and the UN envoy to Yemen last week to discuss the humanitarian situation and a plan to get the talks restarted.
Details have not yet been worked out, but the plan broadly calls for the Houthis and allied renegade soldiers loyal to Saleh to cease shelling into Saudi Arabia, withdraw from Sanaa, hand over their heavy weapons and join a unity government. The elements are similar to previous attempts at a deal, but this time Mr Kerry said they could run in tandem with confidence building measures rather than the rebels meeting the demands first, as the Yemeni government has previously insisted.
The Houthis said they welcomed Mr Kerry’s idea, but would only re-engage in talks if the coalition ceased bombing their territory.
In the meantime, the Houthis and Saleh have convened a governing council in Sanaa. This council, which they formed unilaterally, was a major factor in the breakdown of negotiations earlier this month. UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Wednesday that the move violated Security Council resolutions and would prevent negotiations from starting again.

Source: The National, 01 Sep. 2016