Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil reportedly handed over to the Arab League general secretariat a publication to confirm Lebanon's decision to hold onto its dissociation policy and calling for the formation of a joint Arab military force.

He stressed in his document, according to As Safir newspaper, that Lebanon refuses to intrude in the differences between Arab countries.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea hailed the Saudi-led offensive against the Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen, describing it as a “move to protect legitimacy.”

“No one would have preferred a military intervention in Yemen, but without it chaos would have spread, which will lead to further proliferation of al-Qaida basis in the region,” Geagea said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Friday.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday noted that Saudi Arabia was carrying out air strikes in Yemen but steered clear of asserting whether the military action was in line with international law.

Ban recalled that the Saudi intervention was at the request of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who is considered the legitimate head of state by the U.N. Security Council. 

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition bombed Huthi Shiite rebels Thursday in support of Yemen's embattled president, who headed to an Arab summit to garner support as Iran warned the intervention was "dangerous."

Defiant rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi slammed the intervention as "unjustified", calling in a televised address for supporters to confront the "criminal oppressive aggression."

Turkey could provide "logistical" support for Saudi Arabia's operation against Iran-allied Huthi rebels in Yemen, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday, slamming Tehran's involvement in the region.

"We support Saudi Arabia's intervention," Erdogan told France 24 in an interview.

The United States may provide refueling and early-warning radar aircraft support a Saudi Arabian-led operation in Yemen against Huthi rebels, officials told AFP Thursday.

"It's definitely on the table and being discussed," a defense official said of the possible U.S. military assistance to the day-old intervention by an Arab coalition. 

The Red Cross expressed deep concern Thursday over the impact of Saudi-led air strikes on the Yemeni capital, urging all sides in the conflict to strive to spare civilians.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was "worried by the recent escalation of violence" in Yemen, and at reports that civilians had been killed in air raids on Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia has the best equipped armed forces in the Gulf region, while counting on its Western partners to guarantee its security, the International Institute for Strategic Studies says.

The Saudi military numbers 227,000 troops, including 75,000 in the army, 13,500 in the navy and 20,000 in the air force.

Hizbullah on Thursday called for an immediate end to what it described as the “Saudi-American aggression” against Yemen, a day before a scheduled speech by party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

"Hizbullah strongly condemns the Saudi-American aggression that targets the brotherly people of Yemen, its national army and its vital institutions," a statement from the group said.

Lebanon on Thursday took an ambiguous stance that is in the vein of its famous “dissociation policy” towards regional conflicts, voicing support for any joint Arab action that “reassures everyone,” after Saudi warplanes bombed Shiite rebels in Yemen and sparked Iranian warnings.

“Any joint Arab action is lauded if it is based on standards that guarantee (the interests of) everyone, reassure everyone and involve everyone,” Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said, addressing a meeting for Arab FMs in Sharm el-Sheikh.