Yemen will not be a platform for attacks against Saudi Arabia, Arab League says

UN envoy to Yemen in Cairo for talks on ceasefire and solutions to end conflict

Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit met Martin Griffiths in Cairo on Monday. AFP

Yemen will not be used as a platform for attacks against Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab League Secretary General,  said on Monday.

The number of attacks on Riyadh and Saudi cities close to its border with Yemen have increased in recent months. The Saudi Air Force intercepts most of the assaults.

“We refuse the fact that Yemen will be turned into a platform for attacks on the kingdom of Saudi Arabia or its fate will depend on regional agendas that are indifferent to the interest of the suffering Yemenis,” Mr Aboul Gheit said.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, held talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials on ways to revive the political process to end the conflict.

“Preserving a unified, independent and fully sovereign Yemen is the basic starting point for any settlement to the war,” Mr Aboul Gheit said in a meeting with Mr Griffiths.

“The first step towards any political settlement is the achievement of an immediate ceasefire that will alleviate the grave humanitarian crisis that the country is enduring."

He said the military operation launched by the Iran-backed Houthis on the northern city of Marib, which was condemned by the UN and international community, would cause a major humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of Yemenis.

“Serious pressure and force needs to be exerted on the Houthis by the international community, especially as nearly a million refugees are inside the city,” Mr Aboul Gheit said.

Marib and its surrounding oilfields are the last significant pocket of government-held territory in the north. The rest, including the capital Sanaa, is under rebel control.

During his visit to Egypt, Mr Griffiths met Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, on Sunday, and discussed “ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Yemen and the importance of regional and international support to achieve these goals", the envoy’s office said.