Arab Coalition Vows 2-Pronged Strategy over Yemen ahead of GCC Talks
A coalition of Arab states vowed to coordinate political and military efforts to restore order in Yemen as Saudi-led warplanes Monday launched new air strikes on Shiite Huthi rebels.
The raids killed at least 12 Huthi insurgents and allied forces as fighting continued across several provinces, military and local sources said.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the Abu Dhabi crown prince and armed forces chief of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the coalition is now working on military and political fronts to reestablish the legitimate authority in Sanaa.
The campaign's new phase is based on a "multi-layered strategy, including military, as well as politics and development, to reestablish the legitimacy," he said on a visit to his troops in Saudi Arabia taking part in the coalition.
"We have no other choice but to succeed in the test of Yemen," Sheikh Mohammed said, quoted in UAE daily Al-Ittihad, ahead of another U.N. Security Council meeting Monday on efforts to halt the conflict.
He stressed the UAE's determination to act alongside other Arab countries to confront "regional agendas that reflect greed", an apparent reference to Gulf neighbor Iran which supports the rebels but denies having armed them.
Gulf foreign ministers will meet this week with focus on the war in Yemen, the bloc's chief said Monday.
Thursday's meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh would cover "issues vital to the operations of the Gulf Cooperation Council and developments in the region, including the crisis in Yemen," said GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Zayani.
It comes ahead of a leaders' summit on May 5.
The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
All but Oman are part of the coalition that Riyadh assembled last month in support of Yemen's embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The Gulf heads of states are expected to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on May 13 for talks on Iran's nuclear program and the conflicts in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
Air strikes by the coalition warplanes against Shiite rebels have continued despite an announcement last week of an end to the air campaign dubbed "Operation Decisive Storm."
The Saudi government said following its weekly meeting Monday that the nine Arab countries that make the coalition want to help Yemen "reinstate security and stability, away from any hegemony or foreign meddling that aims to foment sedition and sectarianism."
The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen since late March.
Embattled leader Hadi asked for Gulf intervention after the rebels closed in on his refuge in the southern port city of Aden after they had overrun several provinces since September, including the capital.
Hadi has since fled to Saudi Arabia.
On the ground, Saudi Arabia has started to deploy National Guard troops in the Najran region on its border with Yemen, the kingdom's official media reported late Sunday.
They were joining members of the Saudi border guard and army who have reinforced the frontier since late March.
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