Saudi-Led Coalition Seeks U.N. Support on Yemen Rebels
The Saudi-led coalition waging air strikes in Yemen takes its offensive to the diplomatic stage Tuesday, seeking a U.N. demand that rebels retreat and an arms embargo and sanctions against their leaders.
The draft U.N. Security Council resolution put forward by Jordan and Gulf countries could be blocked by veto-wielding Russia which has friendly relations with Iran, an ally of the Shiite Huthi rebels.
It comes as fears grow of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country, which has sunk deeper into violence and chaos since the coalition launched an air war on the Huthis and allied rebel troops on March 26.
A military source said armed tribesmen had seized control of Yemen's only gas export terminal in Balhaf in the southern province of Shabwa on Tuesday and had vowed to secure the site after soldiers assigned to protect it surrendered.
The terminal's operator Yemen LNG, in which France's Total has a stake of almost 40 percent, said it had stopped production at the facility due to a "force majeure".
But a Total spokesman said Yemen LNG still controlled the terminal and that the perimeter had not been breached.
A local official said the dead bodies of 15 soldiers from an army brigade guarding Balhaf and oil pipelines in Shabwa were found on the outskirts of the provincial capital Ataq.
It was unclear who killed them.
The draft U.N. resolution is the first formal measure to come up for a vote in the Security Council since the start of the Saudi-led bombing raids.
The campaign by Saudi Arabia and a coalition of five Gulf monarchies along with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan has so far failed to stop the rebel advance.
The draft resolution, obtained by AFP, demands that the Huthis withdraw from the capital Sanaa and all other areas they have seized.
It would place Huthi leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi and ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh's eldest son, Ahmed, on a sanctions list, imposing a global travel ban and an assets freeze on the two men.
The Huthis have allied with troops loyal to Saleh to fight Hadi loyalists.
Saleh, who was forced from power in 2012 following a year of nationwide protests against his three-decade rule, belongs to the same Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam as the Huthis.
The draft resolution, which the Security Council is scheduled to vote on at 1500 GMT, would impose an embargo on the sale of arms to the Huthi leaders targeted by sanctions and their allies.
Russia has argued that the embargo should apply to all sides in the conflict, not just the Huthis.
Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Gulf allies have accused Iran of arming the Huthis, which Tehran strongly denies.
Hadi lashed out at Iran in a New York Times op-ed, saying its "hunger for power" was behind the Yemen conflict.
He accused Tehran of fueling a "campaign of horror and destruction" by the rebels.
Iran has denied such allegations, and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned the Saudi-led coalition raids on Yemen as "criminal".
Hadi is sheltering in Riyadh, where he has been joined by Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, who was sworn in as vice president at Yemen's embassy on Monday.
Hadi is considered the legitimate head of state by the United Nations, and Saudi Arabia launched the air strikes at his request.
Saudi warplanes pounded rebel positions again overnight in the battleground southern city of Aden, where Hadi had taken refuge before fleeing the country last month as the Huthis approached, residents said.
After nearly three weeks of air strikes, the situation in Yemen is rapidly deteriorating, particularly in Aden where humanitarian groups are struggling to deliver aid.
"Shops are closed. We have a problem of food," said Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, the Yemen representative of Doctors without Borders.
Violent clashes between rival forces rocked Aden overnight in the districts of Dar Saad, Khor Maksar and Mualla, residents said.
Calls through loudspeakers from mosques in the city accused the rebels of "murder and destruction", and urged them to halt the fighting.
Farther north in Lahj province, pro-Hadi militiamen fired rocket-propelled grenades overnight at rebels traveling in a vehicle, killing six and wounding another, military sources said.
The ambush came shorty after a booby-trapped motorbike exploded in the provincial capital Huta, killing 10 Huthis, a source close to the rebels said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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